It's that time of year again ... the time when owners of cherry, apple, crab apple and pear trees need to be spraying their trees with pesticides to prevent wormy insects from destroying the fruit.

This is especially important because area gardeners are neighbors to the commercial fruit industry. Unchecked pests in backyard trees, even single trees, are sources of infestation for nearby orchards. This causes problems for the commercial fruit grower and can lead to the greater use of pesticides to control pests or even a failure to keep the fruit pest-free and marketable.

Owners of backyard fruit trees and certain fruit-bearing ornamental trees should be "good neighbors" and make the effort to adequately control cherry fruit flies in cherries and codling moth in apples, crab apples, and pears.

This is no easy task. It involves regularly spraying the entire crown of the trees with several pesticide applications or more during the growing season. It also requires the proper equipment for spraying and the application of the recommended chemicals at the right times. It's a lot of work.

Unsuspecting gardeners who planted fruit trees may find this task of pest control a burdensome task for which they don't have the time ... or the inclination.

Unfortunately, they don't have a choice. They are required by county law to control these tree fruit pests. So what options do you have if you have a fruit tree with wormy fruit, but don't want to keep spraying it on a weekly basis?

-- Option 1: The simplest solution is to remove the offending trees. Gardeners often have difficulty parting with a tree or any other plant from their yard or garden, but they should think of this as "tough love" for a tree that has become a delinquent.

-- Option 2: Gardeners who dream of picking fresh fruit from their own backyard trees, may want to consider planting fruit trees that don't usually require regular spraying to control wormy pests in the fruit. These include apricots, peaches and plums. Plums are the most dependable and lowest maintenance tree fruit crop for would-be backyard orchardists. My favorite plums are 'Autumn Sweet' a newer large purple plum that blooms late, has firm sweet flesh and dries well; 'Shiro' a round, yellow Japanese plum with sweet, juicy flesh; and 'Elephant Heart' a reddish-purple heart-shaped Japanese plum with tasty, sweet red flesh.

-- Option 3: It doesn't seem to make much sense for gardeners to grow apples in our region where we can easily buy fresh fruit at packinghouses, u-pick farms, or farmers' markets. The supply of apples is abundant and relatively inexpensive, but you can't always find "your" favorite variety. I doubt I'll ever find 'Empire' (my favorite) apples locally. You can grow your favorite "back-home" apple variety without sprays for codling moth using paper bags to protect the fruit.

At the same time you thin the fruit, you cover each one left on the tree with a special paper bag. That's how they grow apples in Japan. A "Fruit Protection Bag" is a waxed paper bag with a double twist-tie that allows you to secure them over the developing apple. Raintree Nursery in Morton sells Fruit Protection Bags for apples and pears in groups of 100. Contact Raintree Nursery at 1-360-496-6400 or go to www.raintreenursery.com.

What ever option you choose, be a good neighbor and keep the worms out of your backyard tree fruit.

If you have fruit trees and need to know what sprays can be used to control codling moth in apples and pear and cherry fruit fly in cherries, contact the WSU Extension Office of Benton County at 735-3551 for a Home Orchard Pest Management Chart.

* Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for the Washington State University Extension Office in Benton County.