In my backyard here in Elk Grove, I have an apple tree and a peach tree. Every year, I get hundreds of apples and peaches, but every one of them has a brown hole and a worm inside.

Is there anything I can do so I can enjoy the apples and peaches instead of the worms?

– Roy H. Todoroki, Elk Grove

According to UC Master Gardener Bill Pierce, the larvae of the codling moth are infecting your apples. The larvae penetrate apples and pears and tunnels to the core, leaving holes in the fruit that are filled with reddish-brown crumbly droppings called frass.

They can cause substantial damage, often infesting 20 to 90 percent of the fruit. Codling moths can often be kept to tolerable levels by using a combination of nonchemical management methods.

Pest Note 7412, devoted to codling moths, lists both nonchemical and chemical strategies for controlling these pests including a homemade trap and lure that uses vinegar, molasses, ammonia and water. Keep the device in the trees from late April through late September because there are up to six generations of these insects every year here in the Sacramento region.

Here's the recipe: First, get a 1-gallon plastic milk or water jug. Mix together 1 cup cider vinegar, 1/3 cup dark molasses and a dash of ammonia. Add enough water to this mixture to make 1 1/2 quarts. Pour the mixture into the jug and hang the open jug in the tree.

"I have used this trap with good results; it is easy, cheap, and effective," Pierce said. It will not eliminate all of the codling moths, but you will get more wormfree fruit than wormy fruit.

For a copy of Pest Note 7412, send a self-addressed, 44-cent stamped business sized envelope to PN 7412, Cooperative Extension, 4145 Branch Center Road, Sacramento, CA 95827. The Master Gardeners have done extensive work with codling moths at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. For a schedule of their workshops visit http:// cesacramento.ucdavis.edu.

To identify the issue with your peach crop, please bring a sample of the fruit and worm to the Master Gardener office, open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., at 4145 Branch Center Road, Sacramento.

I'm enclosing photos of a plant I found in my yard early this year, and do not know what it is. I would appreciate it if you could tell me.

– Bonnie Damiano, Sacramento

Birds have gifted you with pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), says UC Master Gardener Bill Pierce. The roots, stalk stems and mature leaves of the plant are toxic and can be fatal to humans and livestock.

The plant is attractive in an exotic way, but it should be removed if young children frequent your garden.

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