Source: NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE, 5/1/18

On Monday we finally captured our first codling moth at the Research Station in Mills River. The lateness of this capture was surprising in that there are high populations in the orchard at the research station. However, the month of April was cool, particularly after dusk when codling moth flight begins. Codling moth flight is severely curtailed at temperatures below 60°F.

Temperatures exceeded 60° between dusk and midnight on only 12 of 31 days in April, and of those 12, only 6 days had temperatures >60° for more than a 2 hour period. This may help explain the late biofix in the Hendersonville area. However, Bill Hanlin reported codling moth biofix on 15 April in Wilkes County, so this date does vary within the region. Even with this early biofix date, Wilkes County is still at only about 140 DD, and initial sprays for coding moth are not predicted for at least another week.

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