Larvae are leaf-rollers and damage is similar to other leaf-roller species. Damage to foliage is unimportant. Damage to fruits occurs at different times during fruit development.
- Early instars often settle on the under surface of leaves close to the main veins, where they construct silken shelters and feed on the leaf tissue sometimes creating small windows in the leaves.
- Larvae can be found on shoot tips or areas of new growth, where they web the leaves together with silk.
- A third settlement site is the calyx, where their presence is detected only from observing the fine silken webbing among the sepals.
- Later larval stages construct feeding niches between adjacent leaves and/or fruit, in the developing bud, or on a single leaf (leaf rolling).
- Fruit suffers from surface damage, particulary in compact cluster varieties.
- Internal damage to fruit is less common, but a young larva may enter fruit through the calyx. Excreta are usually ejected on to the outside of the fruit; this does not happen with the codling moth.