[MalcW]

Hi all

I'm asking this on behalf of a colleague at work. She has a fairly old plum tree in her garden - no idea what variety - and the plums always seem to have maggots in them, regardless of whether they are picked as they start to ripen, or later. Does anyone have any idea why, what they might be, and how to stop it happening?

Many thanks.

[compostqueen]

Wasps love plums so it could be wasp larvae.  Not sure though

[surbie100]

No idea what they are, but both my plot neighbours have the same problem.

[8doubles]

These are the culprits, http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=1247

Pheromone traps are put in the trees early in the year to collect the males so there are none to breed with the females.

I have found that maggoty fruit tend to ripen before the others so a good shake of the branches will remove affected fruit which can be left in a bucket of water to drown and then composted.
After the first flush of fruit with lodgers the quality should improve.