Codling moth: how to spot, prevent and treat it pest
How do you spot codling moth?
In the ripening fruit sits a white caterpillar with a brown head, feeding in the core. On the side of the fruit or at the calyx there is an exit hole, and a fruit cut open shows a tunnel and heaps of droppings. Attacked fruit ripens and drops early.
How do you prevent codling moth?
A pheromone trap hung in the tree in May does not put the pest down, but it tells you when the males are flying, and with that when any measure makes sense. Encourage birds, wasps and ground beetles. Collect the windfalls as they drop, so that the caterpillars do not withdraw into the soil.
What works against codling moth?
For the home garden the measures are pheromone traps to follow the flight (on a lone tree they catch enough males for fewer eggs to be fertilised), picking off the attacked fruit and beneficial nematodes sprayed onto the trunk, the branches and the soil under the crown in autumn, when the caterpillars leave the fruit.
Which plants get codling moth? 2
Fruit trees 2
Sources: EPPO Global Database, Royal Horticultural Society
Checked on 18 August 2026.