Baby pears full of little white maggotty things

[greenishfing]

My neighbour has a well established pear tree. The baby pears that are forming are turning black and if you break them open they have got tiny white maggots inside.

Does anyone know what they are, how they got in there and more importantly if there is a cure so this doesn't happen again next year?

Although the tree isn't mine I definitely have a vested interest in this as I am always invited to help myself to the fruit so I would like to help sort out the problem.

[Jonnyt]

Pear midge would be my bet. You can spray with insecticide before the flowers open but this season is now likely a disaster


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[boundtothesoil]

I agree with Jonnyt -pear midge.
On Conference, you can tell the fruitlets that are infected, as they are unusually spherical and often a bit larger than the surrounding 'clean' ones. These can be picked off and dropped into a bucket of water, drowning the creepy crawlies. If left on the tree the infected fruitlets drop off pretty soon and the life cycle of the pest will continue. I try to remove all spherical fruitlets every year, but I still suffer attacks. However, you can look at it as a form of thinning, particularly if your tree is loaded with fruit.