hi .. welcome ...

one of the reasons.. i gave up on fruit.. was the chemical regimen requisite to battle bugs .... otherwise.. you are going to have a lot of ugly fruit.. which is good for pies etc... but dont get your hopes up for pretty grocery-store looking product ...

as to vermin... google bird netting on fruit trees ...

there is a fruit forum for the real hardcore .... and i am sure they could bring you up to speed on the requisite spraying ... chemical or organic ...

good luck

ken

Dealing with insect pests is a completely different animal (pun intended) than dealing with bird damage. Dealing with insects usually involves spraying, while birds are often excluded from the fruit by some type of barrier, like netting.

Insect pressure, or the likelihood for specific types of insects to damage your fruit, varies by location, by time, and by type of fruit. Because this phenomenon is so variable, you may be able to get the most specific advise from your local agricultural extension office. Your local office should have professionals with detailed specific knowledge of pests in your area. They will know what insects are likely to be a problem and when to expect them. They may even be aware of methods that work better for your area than for other areas. Broad-spectrum type treatments often don't work well, so your local ag extension people can target specific pests for better results.

To contact your local office, go to agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/ and click on the locations button, near the top of the page. When the pop-up window appears, click on the 'County Offices Listing' link. Then choose your county. When you get to your county's page, click on the 'Contact' tab. The Texas extension peeps do seem to have made finding the info a little harder than most other states. Anyway, their help (most of it anyway) is free! Your tax dollars pay for most of their work.

I once had a peach tree that gave me some beautiful fruit and I only ever sprayed once for some leaf curling fungus. I don't even bother spraying my old apple trees. I get enough for a few pies and the bugs get the rest. From what I understand, apples require a lot of spraying. My pie cherries do very well without spraying. I lose some to the birds but mostly it's the fat racoons that climb up in the trees and break the branches that drive me crazy.