• Remove all vegetation and mulch from the tree during winter. Bare soil provides a beautiful backdrop for hawks and owls to spot daring rabbits and voles trying to attack your chestnut trees. 
• Raptor poles or owl boxes will promote the establishment of natural predators to rodents keeping the rodent populations in the orchard under control. 
• Tree guards around each tree, pressing the guard into the soil can prevent voles and rabbits from digging under them. Once chestnut trees develop rough bark, the threat from rabbits and voles diminishes. 

Deer not only browse chestnuts, but bucks also often rub all the bark off trees during late summer and early fall. Deer protection must be put in place when chestnut trees are small and vulnerable to damage. 

• Installing a permanent fence around your chestnut planting to prevent deer damage can be cost-effective, as it will protect your trees and crop from year one, on. These fences require regular maintenance. 
• Create wire tree cages made of fencing, anchored with stakes for each individual tree. These cages are a cylinder of fencing Trees cages will last for at least the first ten years of an orchard’s life. 
• Use specialized 4 to 5 ft tree tubes, that also add sunscald protection. These tubes will need to be removed once the trees are several years old to avoid obstructing tree growth. Tree tubes direct the tree growth upward, promoting vigorous growth and precocity.

• Prompt harvest and good sanitation practices can help keep weevil damage under control. 
• Harvested nut should be giving prompt hot water treatment (122 °F for 30 minutes, then immediately cool to ~32 to 34 °F) to  kill weevil eggs before they have a chance to hatch. 
• In large orchards, control weevil populations by making three applications of carbaryl (Sevin®) at 10-day intervals starting in mid-August. The adult weevils can be scouted and monitored for their presence by jarring the tree and counting fallen weevils.  

Adults feed on chestnut foliage until nut kernels enter the dough stage in mid to late August. Although they can lay eggs any time after kernel filling, most eggs are laid after the bur begins to open. The female weevil uses her long proboscis to drill a hole through the shell before turning around and placing her ovipositor into the nut and laying five to seven eggs. Eggs hatch in about 10 days and larval development is completed two to three weeks later. Mature larvae chew a small round hole through the shell, exit the nut, and then burrow into the ground under the chestnut tree. The insect remains in the soil for two to three years before re-emerging as an adult.

Because of their larger size, large chestnut weevils are more successful in laying eggs in nuts before burs open. The long proboscis of large chestnut weevils enables females to drill oviposition sites among the spines of the bur. Eggs hatch in five to seven days producing large, legless grubs. The life cycle of the large chestnut weevil is similar to that of its smaller cousin, but the larger weevil spends only one to two years in the soil.

This curculio is primarily an acorn pest but has been observed to invade chestnut orchards when the acorn crop in nearby forests is low. The nut curculio is related to chestnut weevils and the damage inflicted to chestnut kernels is similar. Curculios have a much shorter proboscis and must wait until the burs open to lay eggs inside the nut. The nut curculio has a one-year life cycle.

• Chestnut gall wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus) adults lay eggs in chestnut buds in early summer; larvae remain dormant until buds expand the following spring. 
• Gall wasps induce the formation of greenish red, 0.3 and 0.5-inch, leaf and twig galls that suppress shoot elongation, reduce fruiting and cause twig dieback. 
• Adult wasps, 1/8-inch long, then begin emerging from the galls during early summer, continuing the cycle. Severe infestations can result in mortality of young trees.
• Parasitic wasps move with chestnut gall wasp populations and have been an important natural biological control to aid in gall wasp population decline. 
• At present there are no documented chemical control method(s) in the literature. 

• The yellow neck caterpillar (Datana ministra) is an occasional pest of chestnuts. 
• These insects feed in large colonies and can completely defoliate a young chestnut tree. 
• Scout your orchard regularly starting in late June and look for newly hatching colonies. 
• Although this pest is frequently kept under control by beneficial insects, an insecticide can be used to control outbreaks of yellow neck caterpillars. Recommended insecticides include carbaryl and Bacillus thuringiensis.

• Potato leafhopper is a regular pest of many agricultural crops, including chestnut. 
• Leafhoppers feed on the veins on the underside of developing leaves causing deformation in May and June. 
• Young leaves show cupping and curling and may fall off the tree. 
• An orchard spray with carbaryl at the first signs of leaf cupping and curling is recommended.