Good enough to eat

Apples Don’t let maggots of codling moth invade your apples before you harvest them in the autumn – take action now by hanging a codling moth trap in your tree and leaving it there until August.

The caterpillars feed in the cores of ripening apples and by the time the fruit is ripe, the caterpillar has often left through an exit tunnel. Traps, available from garden centres and online specialists, are open-sided boxes with a sticky sheet inside containing a pheromone pellet which lures male moths into the trap.

By checking the trap regularly and counting the number of moths you find, you can more accurately time when to spray to control newly-hatched caterpillars before they enter the fruit.