Upcoming Events | Trap Catches | Insects

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Upcoming Events | Trap Catches | Insects

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Upcoming Events | Trap Catches | Insects

   To refresh your memory, this was the season that started out so cool and gradual, it seemed the warm weather would never get here.  Even more oddly, we hardly had any real winter weather until about March, and then degree day numbers stayed considerably below the long-term average until the end of May, so most spring insect activity was very low-key and predictable, with no real events of note except a very pleasant progression through pink bud, bloom and petal fall.  Once Memorial Day passed, however, it was another story entirely; we were routinely in the high 80s, heat units were even with or ahead of average, and the rainfall totals dropped to deficit levels.  As most pest management duties are now over with, this is probably a good time to attempt our annual re-cap of the season's arthropod highlights.

   As in 2006, the weather had the positive effect of obstructing many of the early season pests such as European red mite, spotted tentiform leafminer, and pear psylla.  The same was initially true also for rosy apple aphid, which was essentially absent from most orchards we were scouting, until sometime after petal fall, when many sites suddenly showed up with troublesome infestations, often in combination with green aphids, that needed attention if only to prevent the buildup of honeydew, sooty mold and foliar deformities.  Similar to the last two years, there was enough post-bloom heat to give plum curculio a boost through its oviposition period, so that most locations were able to get by with just the petal fall and 1st cover applications to obtain sufficient protection.

   The traditional summer moth pests seemed to maintain their pattern of heavy flights this year, among them obliquebanded leafroller and the internal worm (oriental fruit moth, codling moth, etc.) complex, with high moth catches and some fruit damage showing up in the traditional high-pressure spots.  Some new chemistry appeared to tame many of the early season OBLR problems, and most growers appear to have done a good job of staying on top of the internal worms, although codling moth has continued its tendency to be considered a predictable key NY pest rather than a troublesome footnote in a few local spots.  As before, more growers have been using OP-alternative CM and OFM control measures (including mating disruption, neo-nics like Assail and Calypso, and CM virus) around the state.

   Apple maggot suffered from the summer heat this year, as the dry soil conditions hampered its ability to emerge in normal numbers from the overwintering pupal sites in the ground.  European red mite populations were unexpectedly slow to build, possibly because of the effective group of preventive and rescue acaricides available, although eventually a number of orchards did develop some late season mite populations, including peach and other stone fruit plantings, which came up with the twospotted spider mites that we tend to expect during hot and dry years.  Woolly apple aphid was evident in a number of places once again, showing up early but not necessarily taking off the way they are capable of doing. 

   Other sporadic summer pests were also to be found, depending on the specific locality: pear psylla and potato leafhopper, stink bugs, and San Jose scale all generated their share of attention in one area of the state or another.  For the second year running, tent caterpillars and Japanese beetle were also notable for their abundance during midsummer.  Finally, we'll be looking out for the last few pests that always occur in some numbers, to get an idea of their importance as the fruit starts coming in for packing: Comstock mealybug, white apple leafhopper and tarnished plant bug.

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     After a mid-April drenching, or even a foot of snow in some higher elevations, things dried out. And then some, with Geneva receiving only 57% of normal rainfall for the period May–August. So far, September is shaping up to be equally dry.  Despite good quality in both the pome and stone fruit crops, the lack of rain is likely to result in some fruit size issues by the time harvest is finished.  In terms of degree day accumulation, however, we're right about normal. 

   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.

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/>