Help....maggots in my plums!!

betterbargains4u

Help.
I got really excited today when I realised that the plums from the tree in my garden were ripe and ready to eat.
Ate one and it was yummy, but in the second one..found a maggot. Whole one (thankfully)
I then started to cut the rest open and found some more!!
My questions are
How do they get in there?
How can I stop them in the future?
How can you tell that they are there without having to cut all the fruits open?
I was going to make a plum crumble this weekend...but have been put off slightly.
Hope you can help.

cheltonian

i would go for a maggot crumble. Lots more protein

tanith

Maggots are laid by some sort of flying insect I guess the only way to deal with this is by regular spraying... Sometimes you get caterpillars in them too this needs a sticky band put around the tree trunk in Spring to prevent the caterpillars climbing the tree.....
I guess it all depends on wether you want chemicals in your garden and fruit..

djohn2002uk

The eggs are laid by the Plum Fruit Moth and they lay them in the flowers when the tree is in blossom so that as the flower turns into a plum the egg hatches inside. The same happens with peas. Take a look here:-
http://www.defenders.co.uk/traps.htm

betterbargains4u

Well you learn something new every day!
Thanks for the reples.
Does anyone know, how you decipher if there are maggots in the fruits, without having to cut open?

manhattan

betterbargains4u wrote:

Well you learn something new every day!
Thanks for the reples.
Does anyone know, how you decipher if there are maggots in the fruits, without having to cut open?

eat the plums whole,then wait for your stomach to turn,lol