Damage (Rhynchites weevil)

Rhynchites damage to Gala fruit
  • During blossom and early fruitlet development, the adult weevils drill small cylindrical holes into the flesh with their rostrum.
  • Numerous holes may be made in one fruitlet or in a group of adjacent fruitlets by a single weevil. Feeding can continue till July.
  • In AHDB Horticulture Project TF 209, adult females were found to lay single eggs inside apple fruitlets. After laying an egg in a fruitlet, the female weevil then partially severs the fruitlet stalk with her rostrum, rather like the strawberry blossom weevil does to strawberry.
  • These hatch after a week or so and the larva feeds on the surrounding flesh, becoming fully grown in about 3 weeks. The fruitlets then drop to the ground, leading to yield loss.
  • Fruitlet damage can be serious and is very characteristic.
  • On apple there may exceptionally be 100 or more holes in a single fruitlet but more likely several or many neighbouring fruitlets will each have a small number of holes, each damaged fruit potentially being down graded.
  • Attacked apples remain marked and distorted, although the holes tend to close up as the fruitlets grow.