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The caterpillars have been having a serious munch on my apple tree, and I need to do something about them. I would much rather not kill them, but last year I left them too it. The leaves where all damaged, but more importantly I did not get any fruit.
We have already tried a garlic solution, sprayed onto the leave but it did not do anything.

Thanks Nikki

How big is your tree? Is it possible to just squidge them off the leaves? I do that if I see a complete caterpillar attack with loads of them all attached to a big cobwebby thing, otherwise I don't notice and leave nature to take its course (all trees have caterpillars on to some extent or other) and it's never afffected the fruit. But then my trees are mature. Small trees I have planted I pick off and squidge caterpillars by hand.

Thanks MMM

Its only a little tree that produces about 10-15 apples if I am lucky , squidging it is then.

For next year you could try traps and grease. You can buy little codling moth thingys that you hang in the tree it attracts the moth into there - I think they're the usual cause of caterpillars on apples. I'm not sure what the grease band stops - but basically it can't climb up the trunk past the slippy grease.

I've never tried those because (1) they are expensive and (2) I've got about 10 apple trees, plus pears, plums, peaches, cherries.... so way too expensive!

Not sure what the grease bands do either unless the caterpillar/grub climbs up the bark. But maybe that's another pest that is dealt with in a different way from the pheromone traps.

I had a tip from a bloke in the garden centre about grease bands - he said fly papers do the same job, leave less mess on your hands when you have set them up, and cost a fraction of the price. I bought a pack of 4 for about £1. Haven't put them on the fruit trees yet (struggling a bit with this big bump!) but will set Mr Grubby to work on it asap.

My little 1 year old apple tree got a good gobbling from a caterpillar - I picked it off and lobbed it over the fence into my neighbour's garden. She hasn't done any gardening for about 15 years and it is, literally, about 7ft high with brambles and nettles all over. Very handy for lobbing weeds/caterpillars/broken eggs, etc....