Plum Curculio
A small dark brown weevil with a curved snout. It cuts a crescent-shaped scar into young fruit, and that fruit either drops in June or grows up dimpled and scarred.
Pest checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of them
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Jar the branches
On a cool morning spread a sheet under the tree, tap the limbs with a padded stick, and collect the weevils that drop and play dead.
Try this first2Clear the June drops
Pick up dropped fruit twice a week through June so the grubs inside never reach the soil to pupate.
3Kaolin clay from petal fall
Coat the fruit with kaolin clay starting at petal fall; it is the main organic option, and it has to go back on after rain.
kaolin clay tree fruit spray4Petal-fall insecticide
If you spray, use a fruit-tree insecticide labeled for curculio starting at petal fall, and repeat on the label's interval through the two-week window.
5Clean up the fence line
Wild plum, hawthorn and brush next to the orchard are where these weevils overwinter and breed, so keep the border mowed and cleared.
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Which plants get plum curculio
Every plant we cover that gets plum curculio, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
trees10
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Rosaceae, with 11 of the 12 affected plants.
- Rosaceae11 plants
When to treat
Act at petal fall, not when you see the scars. By the time the crescents show, the eggs are already in the fruit. The window opens on the first warm humid nights after petal fall and runs roughly two to three weeks.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for plum curculio and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets plum curculio, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.