The Meaning behind ‘Genius’ Bands on New York Fruit Trees

As spring starts to bloom in New York, farmers across the state are preparing for a new generation of crops, and they'll go to some pretty extreme lengths to make sure their plants remain healthy for the entire season.

Growing up in Ulster County, my family had a solitary peach tree on our property. If we knew what the professionals did, we would have tied one of these strange colored bands (below) around one of its branches.

Different Ways to Protect New York Trees

The bands, which look more like a piece of electrical wire, is far more important than it looks. As it turns out, it could have been the very thing that could have saved the life of my childhood tree.

Protecting Local Trees from Harmful Pests

Similar to the burlap bands seen on local oak trees that are meant to protect against invasive spongy moth caterpillars (above), the red "wires" on peach trees are meant to discourage a different kind of pest.

Pheromone Bands Seen on Stone Fruit Trees

The bands, as the park explains above, are actually a tool to protect peach trees from the larvae of both the oriental fruit moth and peachtree borers. Instead of killing larvae, the tactic of using pheromone bands is intended to keep the moths from procreating in the first place:

These pheromone bands emit the same chemical signals that female moths use to attract mates. This overabundance of pheromones around the tree floods the male moths’ senses, limiting their ability to locate a mate, disrupting their mating cycle, and significantly reduces the number of destructive moth larvae produced

"Genius" Bands Can Help New York Peach Trees

Many commenters were fascinated with the simple technology, using adjectives ranging from "brilliant" to "genius". It could be more than just large orchards that could benefit from the bands as well.

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A peachtree borer larva, which caused the demise of my own peach tree, has been called "the most destructive insect pest of peach, cherry, plum, and other stone fruits" in many states. Pheromone bands might be a worthy investment for any New York resident with these trees on their property.