What has happened to these plums?

[littleoctonauts]

Hello

I've moved into a rented property. It has 5 fruit trees on it! The plums seem to have this mucus on them can anyone tell me what it is? I was wondering if it's an.insect burrowing in.

My apples seem to be being eaten too but I didn't take a pic of those.

I'm a complete novice, posted on Gardeners World forum but got no reply, someone please offer me some advice

Oops forgot pics

We have a plum tree and every year the plums have had eggs laid in them and if you break open a plum now you'll find a maggot. The outside of the fruits now are as you describe.

It's caused by the 'plum moth' apparently, one year we did try pheromone traps which caught a lot of moths (in the spring) but we still had the problem. I think commercially plums are grown under nets to stop this issue.

I'll be watching this thread for advice though, as one year I'd like some maggot-free plums if possible!

It's probably the plum moth and you can get pheromone traps to put up in spring. My plum was such a heavy fruiter that losing even half the plums to moth left me plenty of fruits.

Yes plum moth! Last year our tree ( new to us ) was laden and all plums were fantastic. This year plum moth and devastation!
I didn't know it existed, hopefully I can take advice from others posting here.

Thanks all! This is very helpful! So basically I need to try to limit it for next year but not much I can do for this year, is that right? And are the plums without signs of larvae ok to eat?

I have read that even the plums with the larvae are safe to eat. I have to say that I haven't though- although would perhaps consider making jam, maybe!

Yep. Our can eat the plums you just have to cut them so the maggot and nibbled bits are cut away.

Yes we met a family friend yesterday with plum trees who told us this and he said it's just protein! I think I'll be cutting them out myself

I think it's just a sugary sap that seeps out of ripe plums, damsons and greengages generally anything in the drupe family.
Not only am I qualified to know this as a horticulturalist but DD collects these drops to make art.