09/05/08 Tracking the Apple Maggot

Tracking the Apple Maggot. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Anyone who has their own garden in the back yard knows that it's not always easy to grow a beautiful garden. All sorts of little crawly things and disease can quickly ruin a crop. Tree fruit is no exception and this time of year one of the worst pests for apple is the apple maggot. LUNDBERG: This has been an on-going program for quite some time that's conducted by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. We are testing for the presence of the apple maggot pest in and around any areas where we have commercial orchards. In a sentence the purpose of our program is to facilitate the movement of commercial apples from Washington to domestic and international markets. That's John Lundberg, Public Information Officer for the Washington State Department of Agriculture. They put out approximately 87-hundred traps that will remain in place most of the summer. LUNDBERG: The apple maggot was first detected in the early 1980's here in Western Washington and right now we have a total of 22 counties that are quarantined for the apple maggot. The bulk of these, just about all of them are here in Western Washington One of the biggest issues comes from urban homeowners that have apple trees on their property that do not take proper care of the fruit trees. LUNDBERG: The apple maggot fly lands on the fruit if we have an infestation and then it burrows into the center of the fruit and a pupae is created then inside the apple and at that point it becomes a problem. Lundberg is quick to point out that there has never been an apple maggot found in any commercially packed apples since the program began. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.