When did your first spray start?

Last year my peaches got attacked much earlier than previous years. Lost all my Autumn Star, lots of damages on other peaches.

Timing of your first spray may have been late.

I picked all my peaches with holes off the trees, threw them in the trash. I'll spray much earlier this year, right after shuck split.

There may be other reasons but this is my first guess.

Add Bonide Turbo Sticker Spray to your Triaz. and Immunox mixture. It will last a bit longer through rain. Mrs. G

TCM,

I think Scott uses Surround (spraying clay to cover the fruits) and pheromone with good results. Hopefully, he will chime in with more infos.

Tony

TCM, I experienced a similar situation as your's last year. I thought I did all the right things with a spray schedule with Immunox & Triazicide, but obviously not. I got hit hard with OFM. I especially lost the nectarines. Peaches netted me enough to enjoy, but burned more than 1/2 the crop. Perhaps someone will come along and review the timing. What might be throwing me off is waiting until the pomes are in petal fall before spraying insecticide, while the stones were in petal fall 2 weeks prior, and vulnerable. This year I hit them early. Hopefully I got it right. The weather here went from cold to warm and rainy, real quick. The cedars are LOADED with gooey CAR galls at the moment as well. The extention has been running the sirens on fire blight alerts this week. With my apples also at petal fall along with the warm moist evenings, I had all the big guns out tonight. Seems like all the pressures lined up at once.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. I would first invest in a wand extension for your sprayer to make sure you hit every inch of the tree. I think that could be the biggest factor, "thorough coverage is critical" is a phrase found in every spray guide. The extensions let you spray 10-12' high. If your tree is higher go out tomorrow and chop off the higher bits since they are going to give you nothing but trouble.

If your worms are so far developed you also may have started spraying too late. Start immediately at petal fall next year. Lastly I would put one of the worms on your hand and see if it just rolls around like an earthworm, or if it has legs like a caterpillar that let it go in one direction. If its just wiggling you have a curculio problem, not an OFM problem. The fact that you have such a large number of bites so early sounds more like curculio since OFM usually slowly ramps up over the season. But not if you just have OFM really bad. Anyway definitely do the hand test.

Scott

Did I mention how much I love this forum and all you helpful members! What great information...all of it. I did, however, spray my immunox/triaz mixture once right before bloom and once right after petal fall, so I really think I wasn't too late....which just makes the mystery of my infestation even greater. HOWEVER, Scott's reply really has me questioning whether I have OFM or curculio. At this point the "worms" are so tiny I can't tell if they have legs are not, but I have my doubts. If it is curculio, does that change anything in terms of what I did/should have done? I mean, shouldn't my every-10-day spraying of triazicide (with a couple applications of Bonide) have defeated curculio AND OFM? Mrs.G- I actually have been adding a little detergent into my spray because I have read in several places that it helps the spray cling to the leaves better, but I'm sure your recommended product is more effective and I absolutely will be getting some.
Also nice to read from others above who have had similar experiences. So thanks to everyone!

Cityman,

Attached is a thread about Triazicide does not work and the theory of why. Other products were mentioned in the thread. It's interesting read. I still use Triazicide and it works for me.

To recognize the differences between OFM and PC, there are a few things to look for such as type of entry/exit wound (OFM makes a crescent moon shape, PC does not), frass/no frass at the wound (OFM has frass, PC no frass), worms with legs/without legs (OFM has legs, PC does not).

Another easy way, if you still have some damaged peaches on the trees, pick them and put them in a bucket. Wait a few days, worms will emerge. A yucky sight to see but you can have an upclose and personal exam of them. You may have both bugs or worse, have all 3 including coddling moth which is also a serious insect that can damage your fruit.

Hope this help

Here is a link that might be useful: Triazicide may not work for you

I'm really starting to wonder about the shelf life of Triazicide. There are numerous testimonials to its effectiveness on this forum. But there have been enough accounts of it's failure to indicate something is going on.

In the thread Mamuang linked, Triazicide failed Frank and ltilton, and now Cityman mentions it failed him.

I notice Triazicide is formulated in a water-based concentrate, whereas I believe all commercial pyrethroids are formulated in an emulsifiable concentrate (oil based). I wonder if Triazicide has a shorter self life because of the water-based formulation.

Maybe Permethrin is the way to go for stone fruits. The problem with Permethrin though is that it's not labeled for apples after petal fall, or pears after bloom, which essentially means it can't be used to treat pomes for the most serious pests.

Olpea,

Thank you for your input. I've never used Permethrin but if it can only treat stone fruit, I'll hesitate to add one or two more pesticides to the existing ones.

I bought Surround and a new sprayer this year. I hope it won't clog my sprayer!!

I hate to be the basis for any decisions about the effectiveness of Triazicide, so I want to follow up. Most of my peach trees seem to have good, pest-free peaches on them so I think overall the Triazicide was effective for me. However, on my one old, large tree, it clearly failed me. I know it may not make sense that it would work on some trees and not others, but its a fact. It is true that I probably didn't get good coverage on the top half of my one large peach tree. However, I did spray the bottom half to the point of run-off every 10 days and peaches on that lower half all do have OFM. Thanks to the comments above, I'm now more sure than ever that my pests are in fact OFM. Anyway, overall I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made this year thanks to all of you. Not only because it looks like I'm going to have quite a few peaches on my 3-year old trees, but I've also noticed another major change. Last year, the tips of all my peach trees kept dying all the time....I understand that was probably OFM too? This year I haven't had a single tip die on any tree except the big old one.
I just wanted to clarify before Olpea and others develop major doubts about Triazicide using my experience as the basis for that decision (though apparently there have been others). It seems to have failed me on one tree but done its job on others. If you accept my assertion that I really did get good, constant coverage of the lower half of the one tree that it failed me on, then I know it makes little sense...but its true!

I had the same problem doing exactly what you are using. Last year I added malathion to my spray knowing it does not have the long lasting effect on trees...but I was watching and spraying on time...I can say last year I had no problem with either bug and that was all I did differently. Not sure if it had anything to do with the success but I'll be doing it again this year as soon as peddle fall.