Coming Pest Events | Trap Catches | Insects  

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Coming Pest Events | Trap Catches | Insects  

* = 1st catch

Coming Pest Events | Trap Catches | Insects  

2004 FRUIT ARTHROPOD PEST REVIEW

(Art Agnello & Dave Kain, Entomology, Geneva)

   We once again find ourselves approaching the end of a growing season that was more suitable for waterfowl than for insects and mites, and while keeping the trees "covered" and the diseases under control was undoubtedly a challenge for most growers, arthropod pests also had a hard time making their presence known under the cool, wet conditions of 2004.  Perversely, the past week's weather may presage a September that's more summer-like than much of our July or August has been.  Nevertheless, other environmental cues already have been having their effects on the insect community, so this is probably a good time to attempt our annual re-cap of the season's arthropod features.

   Although they tend to blur together in memory, this year's cool spring differed from last year's in giving way to a nice warm spell just long enough to accommodate the bloom (and pollination to fruit set) period, before regressing into weather patterns that resembled early fall for much of the summer.  This had the positive effect of not only obstructing the early season pests such as European red mite, spotted tentiform leafminer, and rosy apple aphid, along with pear psylla, but it also gave plum curculio enough juice to progress through its oviposition period in fairly short order, so that most locations could get by with just the petal fall and 1st cover applications to obtain sufficient protection.

   Seemingly unaffected by climatic conditions, obliquebanded leafroller appeared pretty much on schedule again this year, but still at lower than crisis levels, and evidently still susceptible to timely intervention using the newer selective materials labeled recently.  The internal worm (oriental fruit moth, codling moth, etc.) populations were once again detectable, but evidently were not much more problematic than in 2003, except in a few high pressure orchards.  Among other factors, some credit can certainly be given to increased grower attention to monitoring and timing, as well as to new chemistry available for treatment decisions.

   Apple maggot occurrence was fairly normal this year -- some high populations evident in eastern NY, particularly in the Hudson Valley, and rather spotty in western NY locations -- on the whole, about what we would expect in a wet season.  Woolly apple aphid was an early and widespread concern in many orchards again this year, and promises to continue its ascendance to the level of an annual problem since we are lacking any very effective tactics to use against it.  Other sometimes sporadic summer pests were similarly troublesome, depending on the specific locality: green aphids and potato leafhopper, stink bugs, mirid bugs and San Jose scale all generated their share of attention in one area of the state or another.

   Finally, a few pests were apparently not around in any noticeable number, or else we haven't yet heard from all quarters: Comstock mealybug, white apple leafhopper and tarnished plant bug.  As always, some of these won't be known entirely until after the fruit starts to hit the packinghouse door.

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PLUS OR MINUS

(Dave Kain & Art Agnello, Entomology, Geneva)

   Comparing weather statistics is a lot like throwing around batting averages or field goal attempts -- it doesn't have any impact on how things turn out, but it makes you feel like you've said something definite about what is otherwise out of your control.  Degree-day accumulations were up and down at various times. Things started out looking pretty normal, and for one short stretch even ahead of normal. But, for most of the summer, and up 'til the end (calling now the end) we were about a week behind normal, and just a little ahead of last year.  Seemingly incessant rains made disease management particularly challenging and provided the pat answer to all the questions regarding unusual insect occurrences – It's the weather.

      Following are comparative listings of some of the pest events that occurred this season (in Geneva) with calendar and degree-day normals.  The values and dates are given +/- one standard deviation; i.e., events should occur within the stated range approximately 7 years out of 10.

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This material is based upon work supported by Smith Lever funds from the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Scaffolds is published weekly from March to September by Cornell University -- NYS Agricultural Experiment Station (Geneva), and Ithaca -- with the assistance of Cornell Cooperative Extension. New York field reports welcomed. Send submissions by 3 p.m. Monday to:

Scaffolds Fruit Journal
Editors: A. Agnello, D. Kain
Dept. of Entomology, NYSAES
P.O. Box 462
Geneva, NY 14456-0462
Phone: 315-787-2341 FAX: 315-787-2326
E-mail: ama4@cornell.edu

Online at <http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/scaffolds/>