Every fruit grower shares the harvest with something, and the art of fruit pest control is deciding how much you are willing to share and how to protect the rest. Birds take cherries, wasps take plums, codling moth takes apples, and aphids take the soft spring growth of almost everything. None of these is a reason to give up: most fruit pests can be managed with prevention, barriers and a little timing, and a garden with birds, bees and beneficial insects is a healthier garden than one sprayed into silence.
The first step is always identification. A hole in an apple, a curled leaf, a sticky coating on the shoots — each points to a different pest and a different response, and spraying the wrong thing wastes time and harms the insects you need. Look closely, look underneath the leaves, and look at the pattern: is the damage on the fruit, the leaves or the shoots, and is it spreading or staying put? Our pest identifier helper can help you name a pest from its symptoms, and if you are unsure, check your local extension service before you treat anything.
Prevention matters more than cure for fruit pests. A healthy tree in full sun, with good airflow and clean ground beneath it, is less attractive to pests than a crowded, shaded, stressed tree. Fallen fruit left on the ground breeds the next generation of pests, and weeds around the base give slugs and earwigs somewhere to hide. Clear up, thin the fruit, and keep the canopy open, and you will have fewer pests before you ever reach for a control. If you are unsure about a variety, a spray, or a diagnosis, check your local extension service — its advice is matched to your climate and soil.
Birds: the pest every fruit grower meets
Birds are the single biggest pest of cherries, blueberries, strawberries and grapes, and they find ripening fruit with uncanny speed — often the day before you planned to pick it. The only reliable defence is netting, and the timing matters: put the net on when the fruit starts to colour, not after the birds have found it, and make sure it is secured at the bottom so birds cannot get underneath. Use netting with a mesh small enough that birds cannot get their heads through, and check it daily — birds can become tangled in loose netting, so keep it taut and remove it as soon as the harvest is over. Scarecrows, reflective tape and plastic owls work for a day or two and then the birds learn to ignore them. For cherries on a large tree, netting the whole tree is impractical, and many growers accept sharing the top of the tree with the birds and netting a lower branch or growing a dwarf tree they can cover. Our guide to birds in the garden covers the balance between protecting fruit and keeping birds safe.
Codling moth and the caterpillars in apples and plums
Codling moth is the pest that puts a caterpillar in your apple. The moth lays eggs on the young fruit in early summer, the caterpillar tunnels in, and the apple drops early or rots around the tunnel. Plum fruit moth does the same to plums. The control is timing and hygiene: hang a pheromone trap in the tree in late spring to tell you when the moths are flying, thin the young fruit so there is less for the moth to lay on, and pick up every fallen fruit promptly — the caterpillars leave the fallen fruit and pupate in the soil or the bark, ready for next year. In autumn, clear fallen leaves and fruit from under the tree, and scrape loose bark where pupae hide. Grease bands around the trunk in autumn catch the wingless female winter moth, which is a different pest but a useful habit all the same. Spraying is rarely needed in a home garden if the hygiene is good, and if you do spray, use a product labelled for codling moth and follow the label exactly.
Aphids, scale and the sap-suckers
Aphids cluster on the soft spring shoots of apples, plums, cherries and currants, curling the leaves and covering the shoots in sticky honeydew, which then grows black sooty mould. A small colony does little harm and is food for ladybirds, lacewings and birds, so the first response should be patience: a strong jet of water will knock most aphids off, and the predators usually arrive within a week or two. Scale insects are harder to spot — small, immobile bumps on the bark and stems of citrus, figs and apples — and they also produce honeydew. Prune out badly infested wood, scrub light infestations off with a brush, and encourage the predators by avoiding broad-spectrum sprays. Ants farm aphids for their honeydew, so if ants are marching up the trunk, a sticky band around the trunk will stop them and let the predators do their work. If you spray, use a soap spray or a horticultural oil labelled for the pest, and never spray while the tree is in flower, when bees are working the blossom.
Wasps, slugs, earwigs and the fruit thieves
Wasps are drawn to ripe, sweet fruit — plums, grapes, figs and fallen apples — and they can hollow out a plum in hours. Pick fruit as soon as it ripens, clear fallen fruit daily, and if wasps are a serious problem, hang a wasp trap away from the fruit, not beside it, so it draws them away rather than towards the crop. Slugs and snails attack strawberries and low fruit, rasping holes in the berries and eating seedlings; a straw mulch keeps berries off the ground, and a beer trap or a nightly patrol with a torch will keep numbers down. Earwigs hide in the crevices of fruit and eat the soft flesh of peaches and plums; a rolled-up newspaper or a small pot stuffed with straw, hung in the tree, gives them somewhere to hide by day and can be emptied each morning. Rabbits and deer are a different scale of problem: a rabbit will strip the bark of a young tree in winter, and a deer will browse a whole planting overnight, so a fence or a tree guard is the only reliable answer for both.
Beneficial insects and the spray-last approach
The best pest control in a fruit garden is not a spray but an ecosystem. Ladybirds, lacewings, hoverflies and parasitic wasps eat aphids, caterpillars and scale, and they need somewhere to live: a patch of wildflowers nearby, a log pile, and no broad-spectrum insecticide. Planting marigolds, calendula and nasturtiums near fruit attracts hoverflies and gives them nectar, and our growing guides for marigolds and nasturtiums cover the companions that help. Chickens, if you keep them, are excellent at clearing fallen fruit and the pests in it. If you do need to spray, choose the most targeted product available, spray in the evening when bees are not flying, and never spray a tree in flower. A spray that kills the aphids also kills the ladybird larvae that would have eaten the next generation, so every spray has a cost as well as a benefit.
A seasonal pest-control routine for fruit
In winter, clear fallen fruit and leaves, prune out dead wood, and put grease bands on tree trunks. In spring, watch the blossom and the new shoots for aphids, hang codling moth traps when the blossom falls, and net cherries and blueberries as the fruit colours. In summer, pick up fallen fruit daily, thin the crop, and check the fruit for moth damage as it swells. In autumn, clear everything up again, because the pests that overwinter in fallen fruit and leaf litter are next year's problem. Keep a simple note of what you saw and when — the date the codling moth trap first caught a moth, the week the birds found the cherries — and next year you will be ready a week earlier. That record is worth more than any spray.
Frequently asked questions
How do I stop birds eating my cherries?
Netting is the only reliable defence. Put it on when the fruit starts to colour, secure it at the bottom, keep it taut, and remove it after harvest so birds do not become tangled.
What is the caterpillar in my apple?
Almost certainly codling moth. The moth lays eggs on young fruit in early summer, and the caterpillar tunnels in. Pick up fallen fruit promptly, hang a pheromone trap to time the flight, and clear fallen leaves in autumn.
How do I get rid of aphids on my fruit tree?
Start with a strong jet of water and patience — ladybirds and lacewings usually arrive within a week or two. A soap spray labelled for aphids is the next step, and never spray while the tree is in flower.
Why are wasps eating my plums?
Wasps are drawn to ripe, sweet fruit. Pick fruit as soon as it ripens, clear fallen fruit daily, and hang wasp traps away from the fruit so they draw wasps away from the crop.
Do I need to spray my fruit trees?
Usually not, in a home garden. Good hygiene, thinning, netting and encouraging beneficial insects control most pests. If you do spray, use a targeted product, follow the label, and never spray in flower.
Fruit pest control is mostly prevention, observation and timing — not spraying. Net the fruit before the birds find it, pick up fallen fruit before the moths breed in it, and let the ladybirds do their work. For help naming a pest, use the pest identifier helper, and for the individual fruits, see the growing guides.