WHAT TO DO ABOUT CODLING MOTHS
Have your apples and pears been eaten from the inside out? Codling moth larvae damage (pictured) is easily identifiable, both from the trails of brown waste (frass) inside the fruit, and the exit holes in the skins.
Codling moths can be controlled but you need to act in spring, when the trees are in blossom. Hang pheromone monitoring traps (from garden centres) and spray trees fortnightly with eco-friendly caterpillar-specific insecticides such as Kiwicare’s Organic Caterpillar Bio Control or Yates Ultra Success. Both are made from natural soil bacteria that caterpillars can’t digest.
At this time of the year, all you can do is cut out the bad bits postharvest, and make sure there’s no rotten fruit left on your trees or on the ground under them. If you keep chooks, let them eat the blemished fruit (and its pesky inhabitants). For those in the north, this advice also applies to guava moth infestations, though they don’t have a season as such, so you need to spray year-round to protect everything from feijoas to citrus. the autumn preserver’s orchard. Bottle and stew fruit for winter, make jams and jellies, or try your hand at posh pastes and fruit cheeses for antipasto platters. • The basic jelly making method is the same for all of these fruits. Roughly chop unpeeled fruit into a large pot and add just enough water to cover, then bring it to a gentle simmer (lid on, if possible) and cook until the fruit is tender. Then tip the pulp into a jelly bag, large sieve or colander lined with muslin, or a cheap cotton pillowcase and strain over a bowl. (Catch the drips, as it’s the liquid you want, not the pulp.) Then simply measure the amount of liquid you have, and match with an equal quantity of sugar (or jam-setting sugar if using a lowpectin fruit). Boil briskly until a little jelly dribbled onto a cold plate (from the fridge) gets a wrinkled skin.
• Feijoas are wonderful bottled, and it’s not difficult. Cut firm fruit in half and scoop out the flesh with a teaspoon. (Reserve the skins to make feijoa jelly). Place the scooped fruit into a large bowl of water with the juice of 1 lemon (this stops the fruit turning brown