I hope the growing season is going well for all fruit producers! For this issue, I am sharing a quick update on what we’re seeing in pheromone-baited monitoring traps placed in orchards at the Purdue Agricultural Center in Lafayette, Indiana (Tippecanoe County), as well as orchards of collaborating Indiana growers (thank you!) in Tippecanoe and Stark Counties. Together, we are monitoring codling moth, Oriental fruit moth, and the invasive spotted-wing drosophila to track the seasonal activity of these insects in tree fruit and blueberry production. We’ve just started monitoring for the invasive brown marmorated stink bug this week, and will share updates on activity in future issues!
Figure 1. Universal bucket trap baited with pheromone lure to monitor codling moth. Photo: E. Y. Long
CODLING MOTH & ORIENTAL FRUIT MOTH. This season, we are monitoring codling moth and Oriental fruit moth activity at the Purdue Research Center orchard using two, green universal bucket traps and the Scentry pheromone lure for each moth species (Figure 1). Both the codling moth and Oriental fruit moth can attack several kinds of fruit trees, but codling moth is typically a problem in apple, while Oriental fruit moth is typically a problem in peach and apple. The damaging life stage of these two fruit tree pests is the caterpillar, which burrows into fruits, making them unmarketable cosmetically or destroying the fruit entirely. There can be several generations of these pests each year, so it is important to monitor capture of adult male moths in the traps so that insecticide applications can be timed properly to protect fruit.
So far, we’ve captured 52 codling moths during the month of May at the Purdue Research Center orchard, with peak capture occurring the week of May 8, 2023. Interestingly, we have not detected any Oriental fruit moths in pheromone traps at the orchard this season, but we will continue to monitor!
| Date | Codling moth Tippecanoe Co. (total from two traps) |
Codling moth Total in May (total from two traps) |
Oriental fruit moth Tippecanoe Co. (total from two traps) |
Oriental fruit moth Total in May (total from two traps) |
| Week of May 8 | 26 | 52 | 0 | 0 |
| Week of May 15 | 15 | 0 | ||
| Week of May 22 | 8 | 0 | ||
| Week of May 29 | 3 | 0 |
Figure 2. Scentry monitoring trap (A), and Trece sticky card monitoring trap (B) for the invasive Spotted-wing drosophila, both available from Great Lakes IPM. Photo: E. Y. Long
SPOTTED-WING DROSOPHILA. This season, we are monitoring Spotted-wing Drosophila (SWD) with two kinds of traps: 1) the commercial Scentry monitoring trap and lure with 25% apple cider vinegar solution (Figure X), which we’ve been using the last 3 years, and 2) a newer SWD trap from Trécé that uses a red sticky card trap and lure. We are comparing the capture of adult male SWD using both kinds of traps this season to see if there are differences in accuracy and ease of use! Both kinds of traps have been placed in blueberry orchards and a blackberry patch in two counties in Indiana. As a reminder, SWD is a small vinegar fly that attacks several small fruits, especially raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry, as the berries are ripening. The damage caused by the female fly as she cuts the fruit to lay eggs can provide an entry point for disease, and the presence of larvae (maggots) in fruit can, of course, make your berries unmarketable.
So far, we haven’t detected any SWD on either kind of monitoring trap this season, but this is not surprising, since we do not typically see activity until mid- to late-June. We will keep you posted!
| Date | Starke Co. Blueberry orchard (Scentry jar trap) |
Tippecanoe Co. Blueberry orchard (Scentry jar trap) |
Tippecanoe Co. Blueberry orchard (Trécé sticky trap) |
| Week of May 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
If you are interested in monitoring insect pests in your orchard, it’s never too late to start! Anyone can learn how to set and use these traps, and they can help you better time your pest management strategies by more easily detecting the presence and activity of these important fruit pests in your orchards. As we move forward this summer, you can visit the Long Lab website for updates on trap activity as we have it: https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/longlab/extension/#reports.
As always, if you have questions about fruit insect pest identification or how to place and use monitoring traps, reach out to your local extension educator or specialist so we can help!