Woolly apple aphidsRobert Orpet, PhD Student, [email protected] (Advisors: Drs. Vince Jones and David Crowder)
Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center
What is the economic effect?
• Difficult to measure!
E. Beers
What is the economic effect?
• Difficult to measure!• Sooty mold
R. Orpet
E. Beers
What is the economic effect?
• Difficult to measure!• Sooty mold• Galls
E. Beers
E. BeersR. Orpet
What is the economic effect?
• Difficult to measure!• Sooty mold• Galls• Blind wood
E. Beers E. Beers
What is the economic effect?
• Difficult to measure!• Sooty mold• Galls• Blind wood• Nuisance
E. Beers
Woolly apple aphid lifecycle
• Females exist on apple year-‐round• Give live birth to clones of themselves• Move in and out of soil
• Sexual lifecycle involves elm• Unknown relevance in WA
Phenology—abovegroundFrom Beers et al. 2010. Environmental Entomology 39(2):286
Phenology—mvmt. through soilFrom Beers et al. 2010. Environmental Entomology 39(2):286
How to manage organically?
• Conventional apples use Diazinon, Lorsban, Ultor
• Organic management:• Biological control• Scion and rootstock genetics
Biological control
E. Beers
E. Beers E. Beers E. Beers
R. Orpet
Biological control is important
No natural enemies
Parasitoid only.
Parasitoid + predators
From Gontijo, Beers, and Snyder. Biological Control 90: 83-‐91
An underappreciated predator…
An underappreciated predator…
Nabokov, wikipedia
Earwig biocontrol in 2016 experiment
Earwig biocontrol in 2016 experiment
Earwig biocontrol in 2016 experiment
Earwig biocontrol in 2016 experiment
Earwig biocontrol in 2016 experiment
Earwig biocontrol in 2016 experiment
Earwigs: an apple pest?
Earwigs: an apple pest?
-No evidence of damage caused by earwigs in 2016 study
Earwig conservation
• Spinosad kills them• Only 1 generation of earwigs per year
Woolly apple aphids and tree genetics
Scion susceptibility
• Fuji is especially susceptible• Honeycrisp relatively resistant• (Anecdotal)
Rootstock resistanceSize chart from TFREC
EMLA 106 EMLA 111G41 G202
Effect of resistant rootstocks?
• Aboveground part of tree can still be susceptible
Apple interviews and surveys
• Talk to me if interested in in-‐depth in-‐person interview
• This will help guide future research and extension involving woolly apple aphids and with earwigs• Anybody who works with apples can participate
Conclusion
• Woolly apple aphids• Feed above and belowground year-‐round
• Biological control• Syrphids can be attracted with sweet alyssum• Earwigs are beneficial
• Genetics• Fuji is especially susceptible• Consider woolly aphid resistant Geneva rootstocks