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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Plum Curculio

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  • From: "Dennis Norton" <dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Plum Curculio
  • Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:59:23 -0500

Jim,

We don't use the trap towers, but the small circle traps that are attached directly to the tree. However, after coming across the following short article, I am planning on using the suggested technique that gave the better test results in thbe article next seaosn.

Odor-baited trap trees: a new approach to monitoring plum curculio (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

Prokopy RJ, Chandler BW, Dynok SA, Pinero JC.

Department of Entomology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.

We compared a trap approach with a trap-tree approach to determine the need and timing of insecticide applications against overwintered adult plum curculios, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst.), in commercial apple orchards in Massachusetts in 2002. All traps and trap trees were baited with benzaldehyde (attractive fruit odor) plus grandisoic acid (attractive pheromone). Sticky clear Plexiglas panel traps placed at orchard borders, designed to intercept adults immigrating from border areas by flight, captured significantly more adults than similarly placed black pyramid traps, which are designed to capture adults immigrating primarily by crawling, or Circle traps wrapped around trunks of perimeter-row trees, which are designed to intercept adults crawling up tree trunks. None of these trap types, however, exhibited amounts of captures that correlated significantly with either weekly or season-long amounts of fresh ovipositional injury to fruit by adults. Hence, none appears to offer high promise as a tool for effectively monitoring the seasonal course of plum curculio injury to apples in commercial orchards in Massachusetts. In contrast, baiting branches of selected perimeter-row trees with benzaldehyde plus grandisoic acid led to significant aggregation (14-15-fold) of ovipositional injury, markedly facilitating monitoring of the seasonal course of injury to apples. A concurrent experiment revealed that addition of other synthetic fruit odor attractants to apple trees baited with benzaldehyde plus grandisoic acid did not enhance aggregation of ovipositional injury above that of this dual combination. We conclude that monitoring apples on odor-baited trap trees for fresh ovipositional injury could be a useful new approach for determining need and timing of insecticide application against plum curculio in commercial orchards.


Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Fruth" <jfruth@uslink.net>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 7:17 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Plum Curculio


To Dennis Norton,
From what I've been reading about trapping Plum Curculio, a lure/trap
only works if the boles of the trees are painted white and the trap towers
are positioned near the trees. Apparently, the Curculios don't recognize
the trees as plum trees if the boles are white. Did you paint your tree
boles white?
--

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN
www.bberryfarm.com
Jams, Jellies and Syrups
(218)568-8483 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My cell]

This season we thought we would use the Great Lakes traps and lures on
recommendation of our contracted entomologist. Spent several hundred
dollars and never caught a single PC but had plenty of fruit damage. In the
past 15 years, Royal Oak Farm has never found a good trap and lure that
works. The good ole "shake the tree and see what falls" method has proved
more valuable than any trap we have used. We got more damage using the
traps this year than ever before. Next year, we go back to shakin'!

For what it's worth!!

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard










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