Month: July 2016

Four female SWD were caught in traps on July 6, 2016 set in a summer raspberry planting in Clinton County. The summer raspberries at this location are ripe. Traps are being monitored here by Amy Ivy, Extension Educator, and her summer intern Lauren Fessler, with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program and Clinton County Cornell Cooperative Extension. This is the earliest SWD has been caught in this northeastern corner of NY since SWD was documented in NY in 2011.

Please review:

• SWD management
• SWD monitoring
• SWD distribution

A single male was initially found on June 29, 2016 in traps set in a blueberry planting in Dutchess County. During the following week, by July 7, one female and four male SWD had been caught at the same location. The blueberries are starting to ripen and it will be essential to protect the fruit from infestation with an insecticide spray program. Traps are being monitored here by Jim O'Connell, Extension Educator with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program and Ulster County Cornell Cooperative Extension.

One female SWD was caught in traps on July 7, 2016 in Wyoming County set in a raspberry planting. The black and red raspberries at this location are starting to ripen. Traps are being monitored here by Don Gasiewicz, Extension Educator, Wyoming County Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Remember that one female SWD can lay about 300 eggs in her lifetime. It is likely that most, if not all, females have mated by now and are ready for laying eggs.

Time to plan to protect your crop!

Want to know what counties we've found SWD in? Check the distribution map on Cornell Fruit Resources, on NYS IPM, or on EDDMapS SWD VMN.

On July 7, 2016, one female SWD was caught in traps set in blackberries in Saratoga County. The blackberries at this location are just starting to color, raspberries are ripe, and June strawberries are done. These traps are being monitored by Annie Mills, technician, and Laura McDermott, Extension Educator, with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program (ENYCHP), Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Seven male and 5 female SWD were caught on July 6, 2016 in two traps set in a hedgerow on the edge of a June strawberry planting in Rensselaer County. These traps are being monitored by Annie Mills, technician, and Laura McDermott, Extension Educator, with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program (ENYCHP), Cornell Cooperative Extension.

These traps are near a blueberry planting that is covered with exclusion netting. To date, no SWD have been caught in traps set inside the netting.

This is a fairly large number of SWD—13 total caught in the traps at this location. SWD populations are building up in this vicinity. This could be taken as a sign that populations in many locations may build up soon.

Growers should take steps to protect vulnerable fruit with an insecticide program that rotates active ingredients to prevent insecticide resistance devloping in SWD, sanitation measures to remove fruit debris and over-ripe fruit that serve as food and egg-laying resources for SWD, and establishing a cold chain after harvest, i.e. refrigerating harvested fruit to stop/kill SWD in fruit. More on SWD management is on Cornell Fruit Resources.

Two female SWD were caught on July 2, 2016 in traps set in Erie County in a raspberry planting. The traps are being monitored by Sharon Bachman, Extension Educator, Erie County Cornell Cooperative Extension. There may be more SWD in the trap contents, but time has only allowed Sharon to screen a portion of the traps; enough to get this first find report out.

Sustained trap catch reports (SWD caught in traps two weeks in a row) have come in from six locations this week.

• Yates County on July 1, 2016 - sustained catch in a raspberry planting with no fruit infestation found via salt flotation, reported by Gabrielle Brind'Amour, Greg Lob's program, Dept of Entomology, NYSAES.
• Cayuga County on July 6, 2016 - sustained catch (3 females) in a summer raspberry planting with harvest underway, reported by Nicole Mattoon and Juliet Carroll, NYS IPM Program.
• Livingston County on July 6, 2016 - sustained catch (1 female) in a blueberry planting without ripe fruit, reported by Dave Thorp, Livingston County Cornell Cooperative Extension.
• Schuyler County on July 6, 2016 - sustained catch (5 females) in a summer raspberry planting with ripe fruit, reported by Nicole Mattoon and Juliet Carroll, NYS IPM Program.
• Tioga County on July 6, 2016 - sustained catch (1 female) in a fall raspberry planting adjacent to low tunnel strawberries, reported by Margaret Ball, Tioga County Cornell Cooperative Extension.
• Ulster County on July 6, 2016 - sustained catch in a summer raspberry planting, reported by Jim O'Connell, ENYCHP and Ulster County Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Two female SWD were caught in traps in Tioga County on July 1, 2016. The traps are set in a fall raspberry planting near low tunnel strawberries. These traps are being monitored by Barb Neal, Master Gardener, and Margaret Ball, Extension Educator, Tioga County Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Please join me in welcoming Margaret to Cornell Cooperative Extension!  She was just hired this month and has immersed herself in a whirlwind of SWD early arrival and trap monitoring; all during the week of the Tioga County Fair!

Clearly, 2016 is going to be a very challenging year for summer and fall raspberries, blackberries, elderberries, blueberries, and other fruit crops vulnerable to SWD infestation. Look to Cornell Fruit Resources for SWD management information.

A lone female SWD was caught in one of two traps set in a small blueberry planting in Livingston County. Traps are being monitored by Dave Thorp, Livingston County Cornell Cooperative Extension Association, and were checked on July 29, 2016.

Early blueberry varieties in Western NY are just barely blushing with color; only one or two berries per cluster are blue. The crop is not yet ripe.