Fruit IPM for August 19, 2020

Peach:

Stink Bugs Apples and Peaches: BMSB populations are becoming quite high in several northern locations. These populations have the potential to do serious damage to apples where populations are high. Growers with high BMSB populations should consider weekly insecticide applications and/or supplemental border applications with BMSB effective insecticides.

Oriental Fruit Moth (OFM): Trap counts are very low, indicating low pest pressure. Most growers do not have to treat for this insect at the present time, although a few locations show over 8 moths per trap, which does merit treatment. Insecticides used for BMSB will all control OFM. All growers who are using mating disruption have very low populations.

Scale Insects: Both White Peach Scale and San Jose Scale second generation crawlers are still active. In some orchards, the crawlers have settled on peach fruit, which of course downgrades the fruit. More importantly, it is an indicator of high populations which need to be treated. See last newsletter for treatment options.

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) and other Fruit Flies: Occasionally where insecticide use has been very low and peaches have been let go to completely ripen for direct markets, some fruit fly damage has been seen. If you are direct marketing fruit as ‘table ready’, then you may have to use a short residual insecticide during the last week before harvest. Materials (and days PHI) which may be used in these situations include Delegate or Entrust (1), Danitol (3), Exirel (3), and Lannate (4).

Apple:

Codling Moth (CM): Trap captures remain above threshold in problem blocks in southern and northern counties. Treatments should be continued any time there are close to 5 or more moths per trap. Diamide products (Altacor, Voliam, Besiege, Exirel, Verdepryn), and Delegate are the products of choice. Under high populations, the additional use of the CM/OFM virus, Madex, can be helpful.

Grapes:

Spotted Lanternfly (SLF): Adults are becoming more common in vineyards statewide, but only a concern in northern counties at the present time. SLF adults will commonly settle on the edge rows nearest a wooded border, and these are the areas which may get the highest populations. If you wish to treat for high populations of SLF adults, the following materials can be used in grapes (adapted from Penn State, and reprinted from last week). Other formulations may be available, but the data was generated with the formulations listed.

Tree  Fruit Trap Counts – Southern Counties

Tree  Fruit Trap Counts – Northern Counties

Blueberry:

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) : Elliott and other late varieties are finishing up in southern counties, so treatments for this insect are completed in most cases. Farms with direct markets in northern counties will need to continue treatments on the latest varieties until completely harvested.

Putnam Scale: We are still seeing positive crawler counts on 7 out of 10 traps. However, the number of crawlers being found on the traps has increased from 3 to 10 fold during the past week. This indicates that the second generation crawler stage is well underway. If you have not yet done so, and you had 1^st generation scale, then it is time to treat. Options for control include: Esteem 35W @ 5oz/A, or Diazinon @ 1-2 lb/A (50W). The diazinon label specifies that there is a maximum of 2 lb of formulated product allowed per season, and a maximum of only 1 in-season foliar application per year. In most cases this will be a post-harvest application, but there is 7 day PHI for diazinon. The application volume is just, if not more important that the rate. The insecticide must contact the insect as it crawls up the cane and onto the branches. Make sure to use as much water as possible, or close to 50 gal/A or more. Use of a non-ionic spreader will help slightly to increase coverage. Scale applications Will Not Work if done by air. Good pruning that eliminates the old canes that harbor the highest populations is another management tactic that should always be practiced.

Sharpnosed Leafhopper (SNLH): Adult populations remain very low, indicating that 2^nd generation adults have not yet matured or started to move about. It is too early for any insecticides directed against SNLH.