Robert’Orpet,PhDStudent,[email protected]’ …treefruit.wsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Orpet_WAA_FS2017_D1.pdfWoolly%apple%aphids Robert’Orpet,PhDStudent,[email protected]’

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


• Difficult to measure!• Sooty mold

R. Orpet

E. Beers


• Difficult to measure!• Sooty mold• Galls

E. Beers

E. BeersR. Orpet


• Difficult to measure!• Sooty mold• Galls• Blind wood

E. Beers E. Beers


• 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






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

[email protected]

Robert’Orpet,PhDStudent,[email protected]’ …treefruit.wsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Orpet_WAA_FS2017_D1.pdfWoolly%apple%aphids Robert’Orpet,PhDStudent,[email protected]’

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