Oriental fruit moth (OFM) biofix at Winchester

I’m calling biofix for OFM in the Winchester area for Sunday, April 5, based on sustained captures since then, although at relatively low levels. We will soon begin to post regular updates regarding degree day accumulations from OFM biofix and spray timing/product selection implications on my section of the website at https://blogs.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit-pest/. If you plan to use mating disruption for OFM, now would be a good time. Recall that OFM is one of the species that shows “protandry”, which means that males emerge before females. The degree day models that we run are to predict egg hatch; therefore, females need to be present for mating and egg-laying to occur. Given the cool and windy conditions forecast for many of the next 10 days, I don’t expect a heavy , sustained flight of OFM until the weather improves. The sprayable formulation for OFM (CheckMate OFM-F) is a good choice for managing first generation OFM and to mitigate its populations from increasing during the season. This product is applied at 1.32 – 2.93 fl oz/acre, but is not especially rainfast, so may need to be reapplied to cover the flight of the entire first generation if heavy rain occurs after application. Sprayable pheromone is intended to be applied against each generation of OFM. Other options for OFM mating disruption include a number of hand-placed pheromone dispensers from Trece (Cidetrak products; trece.com/products/) and Pacific Biocontrol (Isomate products; pacificbiocontrol.com/details/), which provide extended control. Both companies also provide dual species mating disruption dispensers for codling moth and OFM, which are typically applied in apples during bloom. Of course peaches are now at petal fall, and so also need protection from a number of other pests from this point forward, including plum curculio, tarnished plant bug, and stink bugs, among others. In the Spray Bulletin, we recommend a broad spectrum pesticide at petal fall, including one of the pyrethroids, Lannate, or Imidan. Follow-up applications at shuck split and shuck fall could also include a pyrethroid, or a range of others listed in the Bulletin, according to which pest(s) were most problematic last year (i.e. some of the products listed for shuck split and shuck fall are narrower in their spectrum of activity).

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