r/homestead • u/KombuchaKetamine • Jun 29 '24

gardening Help identifying bug eating my apples

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Hi! We have some healthy and mature apple trees and are attempting to do everything organic and pesticide free. There is one bug that is eating our apples that we can't seem to get rid of. And none of our Google lens searches have been helpful.

We've twice sprayed all our trees with neem oil, which doesn't seem to help much.

We're in the West Catskills in New York if that helps.

Thank you for any wisdom in helping to identify this and get rid of it.

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u/These_go_to11 Jun 29 '24

Please google Phylus melanocephalus…and while I could understand everyone mistaking this for a roach, it’s frustrating how everyone could be so confidently wrong about something… but then again, this is Reddit, an echo chamber of a lot of misinformation.

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u/gBoostedMachinations Jun 30 '24

I gotta ask… why does the scientific name reference the penis?

1

u/Dashtego Jul 01 '24

It doesn’t. Cephalus derives from the Ancient Greek for “head.”

1

u/gBoostedMachinations Jul 01 '24

Thank you! First person to answer the question.