What's Eating My Pear Tree?
Pears run cleaner than apples — but the one disease that mimics pest damage here is a killer, so read the not-a-bug note carefully before you diagnose anything else.
The usual suspects
Pear psylla
The signs: Sticky honeydew raining onto leaves and fruit, black sooty mold following it, and russet-scarred fruit; heavy years weaken the whole tree.
What it looks like: Tiny cicada-shaped insects and their honeydew-drop nymphs on new growth.
What to do: Dormant horticultural oil before bud break is the cornerstone; in season, avoid over-fertilizing — soft lush growth is psylla food.
Codling moth
The signs: Frass-plugged holes and tunnels to the core, same as its apple work.
What it looks like: Pink-white larvae inside fruit from early summer.
What to do: Footie-bag young fruit, collect drops weekly, pheromone traps to time the flights.
Pear slug (sawfly larvae)
The signs: Leaves rasped to brown skeleton patches from the top surface.
What it looks like: Glossy olive slug-like larvae in summer.
What to do: Soap spray or ash dusting on reachable growth; tolerable on vigorous trees.
Plum curculio
The signs: Crescent scars and knotted, dropped young fruit.
What it looks like: The petal-fall snout weevil again.
What to do: Tarp-and-knock after petal fall; strict drop pickup.
Deer, rabbits, and voles
The signs: Browsed shoots at head height; winter bark gnawing at the base — girdling kills young trees.
What it looks like: Paired tooth marks low, ragged browse high.
What to do: Trunk guards and fencing from planting day; it's cheap insurance against the only damage here that's fatal overnight.
When it's not a pest at all
Branch tips that blacken and hook over like a shepherd's crook, leaves clinging as if scorched by fire — that's fire blight, a bacterial disease and the pear's great enemy. No insect did it: prune infected wood twelve inches below symptoms, disinfecting tools between cuts, and plant resistant varieties.
Or just point your phone at it
Snap a photo of the leaf, the bug, or the droppings, and Harold — the advisor built into Homestead Paradise — names what he sees, tells you friend or foe, and what he'd do next. Honest when he's unsure, and careful where it counts.
Put Harold's Eyes on it — free 14-day trial