Developing cost-effective reduced-risk apple and peach pest management programs for the eastern United States

Apple and peach growers in the eastern United States rely heavily on inexpensive, broad-spectrum insecticides to manage approximately two-dozen arthropod pests. Our research results presented here are part of a multi-state Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program (RAMP) grant funded by the USDA-CSREES. The study is designed to reduce grower reliance on organophosphate, carbamate, and pyrethroid insecticides. Our principal objective is to develop economical reduced-risk pest management programs for apple and peach production in the eastern United States. In New Jersey, two internal-feeding Lepidoptera pests, the codling moth (CM), Cydia pomonella (L.), and oriental fruit (OFM), Grapholita molesta (Busck), can cause serious economic damage to apple and OFM can cause losses to peach. During 2007 and 2008, we evaluated effects of mating disruption (MD) applied to adjacent blocks of apple and peach and compared damage from this treatment with what was observed in other adjacent apple and peach blocks where MD was applied to only one or the other crop. In 2007, MD reduced internal feeding damage to apple. OFM pressure in peach was low and MD had no impact on this pest in peach. MD in conjunction with RR and organophosphate-replacement insecticides prevented internal feeding damage better than insecticides alone. Results from 2008 and the economic implication of our study will be discussed.