Pale apple leafroller

Pseudexentera mali

Leafrollers get their name from their habit of rolling the edges of leaves around themselves, sometimes rolling several leaves together, making a shelter from birds and other natural enemies. Young larvae bore into fruit buds just as they are opening (advanced green tip stage) and this often destroys the bud. Older larvae can reach 20 - 25 mm in length. They eat tender, young leaves and also the developing fruit, sometimes chewing all the way into the core. Severely damaged apples will drop to the ground. Older fruit which are only slightly damaged on the surface may heal over with a light brown corky, russeted scar and remain on the tree until harvest. The Kitchen Orchardist may use these for cider, pies or carefully cut up into fresh salads as the flesh beneath the damaged area is usually clean. Fruittree leafrollers and obliquebanded leafrollers' damage is done to the fruit much earlier than the redbanded leafroller and therefore the healed over scars are set deeper and are more rounded at the edges. Redbanded leafroller scars are made later when the fruit is much more mature and the damage is newer and therefore much shallower and ragged along the edges.

Plant Protection Products