Fruit Crops Edition - Blueberry Section

Seasonal updates on diseases, insects, weeds impacting small fruit (blueberry, cranberry, and wine grape). Fruit Pest Alerts are also available via this category feed.
 
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Don’t Let Your Guard Down With Farm Worker Health

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical and essential role of farm labor in getting food from farm to plate. However, health concerns should not stop with a negative COVID test or vaccine, especially if an employee or family member is exhibiting any of the ‘flu-like’ symptoms that are associated with corona virus.

From the Vermont Law School Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) – “The CAFS launched the Food System Worker Law and Policy Project in 2021 with research focused on farmworkers, who—despite forming the backbone of a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S.—face a level of occupational risk unrivaled by most workers. From repeated exposure to pesticides and extreme heat, …. ” Their newly published “report titled “Essentially Unprotected: A Focus on Farmworker Health Laws and Policies Addressing Pesticide Exposure and Heat-Related illness,” … May 2021, provides an overview of the findings as well as policy recommendations that are urgently needed to protect farmworkers.”

Typically not seen until July, we’ve already had 3 heat waves beginning in May that expose workers to a number of potential health risks that may present very similar symptoms and can be equally health, and even life, threatening. Published studies from the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences suggest growing numbers of people worldwide are at risk of heat stress and related complications, including farmers and ag laborers working in high heat and humid conditions. Last year, OSHA-NIOSH released a Heat Index App (in English and Spanish at the Apple App Store or Google Play) featuring:

  • A visual indicator of the current heat index and associated risk levels specific to your current geographical location
  • Precautionary recommendations specific to heat index-associated risk levels
  • An interactive, hourly forecast of heat index values, risk level, and recommendations for planning outdoor work activities in advance
  • Editable location, temperature, and humidity controls for calculation of variable conditions
  • Signs and symptoms and first aid information for heat-related illnesses

For more information about safety while working in the heat, see OSHA’s heat illness webpage, including online guidance about using the heat index to protect workers.

In addition to heat stress, harvesting and other activities along field edges, including going into the woods instead of using a portable bathroom facilities, create a high risk for tick bites which can also carry a number of diseases, many as or more debilitating than Lyme disease. It is critical for your employees’ health and well-being to get proper diagnosis and treatment for all of these ailments. This table illustrates how many tick-born diseases, as well as heat stress, all have potential symptoms very similar to those of COVID-19. Each is linked to additional resources at the CDC. In many cases, it may be the ‘other symptoms’ that may be unique to each disease and assist a medical practitioner with correct identification and lead to better verification with further testing.

   Disease    >

Symptoms  v

COVID-19 Heat Stress Lyme Disease Ehrlichiosis Babe- biosis Powas-san Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever
Vector* Human Black-legged Tick (a.k.a. Deer Tick) (I. scapularis) Lone Star Tick (A. americanum) & Black-legged Black-legged Tick Ground hog(I. cookei), Squirrel (I. marxi) & Black-legged Ticks American Dog Tick (D. variabilis)
Fever or chills X X X X X X X
Cough X X
Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing X
Fatigue X X X X
Muscle/body aches X X X X X X
Headache X X X X X X X
New loss of taste or smell X
Sore throat X
Congestion or runny nose X
Nausea/vomiting X X X X X X X
Diarrhea X X
Rash X X X
Other symptoms X X X X X X
Potentially Deadly/Disabling
X X X X X X X

*NOTE – main vector listed, but many tick born diseases may be vectored by other species of ticks, or different species causing same disease may be carried by different tick species.

Fruit IPM Information for 6/29/21

Blueberries:

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD): Populations are increasing.

[Read more…]

Fruit IPM for 6/22/21

Peach:

Oriental Fruit Moth: Growers who have used mating disruption for OFM should continue to focus on PC; GPA; and catfacing insect pests as described below. For those growers using insecticides, the first of 2 applications in northern counties is due this week, and the second of 2 applications in southern counties is due next week. This is particularly important where the moth flight is exceeding the treatment threshold of 8 moths per trap. [Read more…]

Fruit IPM Information for 6/17/21

Cherry:

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD): Cherries will need SWD protection. Effective insecticides for use on cherries include Asana, Baythroid, Cormoran, Danitol, Delegate, Entrust, Exirel, Imidan, Lambda-Cy/Warrior, Mustang Maxx, Malathion, and Verdepryn. Check the 2021Tree Fruit Production Guide for PHI’s and REI’s for U-Pick operations. rated products. [Read more…]

Fruit IPM for 6/10/21

Blueberries:           

Aphids: In most cases, aphid colonies have already been treated. Growers have used various products with varying results. [Read more…]

NJ Secretary of Ag Fisher Addresses Governor’s Executive Order #243

NJ Governor Murphy signed Executive Order #243 rescinding EO#107 which requires employers to accommodate tele-work options for employees, and also lifts indoor mask mandates and 6ft social distancing requirements for vaccinated employees working indoors in businesses not open to public. Secretary of Agriculture Douglas Fisher has provided a summary of the changes that may impact agriculture operations. The full text of his letter is attached here.