A single female SWD was caught on June 13, 2016 in one of four traps set in a blueberry planting in Washington County. These traps are being monitored by Laura McDermott, extension specialist, and Annie Mills, ag technician, with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension. Blueberries at the farm are not ripe.
This is turning out to be an early year for SWD arrival in New York State. The monitoring network will continue to service traps until SWD is caught at sites for two weeks in a row.
Farmers growing June strawberry may want to check their berries for signs of infestation. Normally June strawberry isn't vulnerable to SWD infestation, but this year's early arrival of SWD could place this crop at risk. Refer to the SWD blog, Do my fruit have SWD? or to the leaflet, Guidelines for checking fruit for SWD larvae in the field, on Cornell Fruit Resources.
The SWD monitoring network for 2016 is set up. Twenty-five people are collaborating on the network this year, including Cornell Cooperative Extension agriculture educators, regional fruit educators, and extension faculty. A total of 117 Scentry traps and lures are deployed in the network, primarily in raspberry (summer and fall) and blueberry, in 25 Counties.
Most sites are reporting no SWD finds to date, but a few reports have come in of SWD caught in traps. Related to that, this week's trap monitoring at Dr. Greg Loeb's research site caught no SWD (see blog, Ontario County first find), which may indicate that populations are still sporadic and low.
2016 SWD Monitoring Network: collaborators, Counties, number of traps and crops.
Dr. Faruque Zaman, entomologist with Suffolk County Cornell Cooperative Extension, reports that on June 8, 2016 two female and two male SWD were captured in two separate Scentry-lure baited traps at blueberry and blackberry locations in eastern Long Island. This is about a month earlier than last year’s first interception in Suffolk County. However, after checking 200 young blueberries (collected on June 13, see picture of the fruit stage) no sign of SWD egg laying or damage was found. There were no fruit in the blackberry planting.
These particular blueberry and blackberry sites have surrounding woods and both traps that captured the SWD were placed on the border rows near the woods. No SWD have been captured in traps placed in other locations in Suffolk County (raspberry, grape). At this time the SWD population appears to be very low.
Blueberry fruit development stage at the farm where the SWD were caught in Suffolk County, Long Island. No signs of infestation nor egg laying were found on fruit. Photo: Faruque Zaman
Dr. Greg Loeb’s entomology research program, Cornell University, Geneva, NY, has caught 3 SWD females in traps set on the edge of a blueberry planting that is adjacent to woods in Ontario County. This blueberry planting is often the site where Greg’s program catches SWD first. Traps were set out on May 31st and checked on June 7th, which indicates the SWD were caught sometime during that week. The good news is that the blueberry crop is not ripe and therefore not vulnerable to oviposition at this site.
This is the earliest that SWD has been caught in New York State since monitoring began in 2012. The mild winter that occurred in New York, with only one significant cold snap around February 14th, may have contributed to early arrival and overwintering success of SWD. Mild winters and early SWD arrival is the typical situation that is now found in Europe with this invasive insect.
Research by Dr. Anna Wallingford, a post-doctoral associate in Greg’s lab, and others is finding that SWD goes into reproductive diapause in the late fall during which time egg laying ceases and overwintering survivability increases. The traps used to catch these three females were baited with a fermenting lure that is being researched by a team at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey. This same team has research that is underway, on the female SWD caught in these fermenting lure traps, to determine if these early-arrival females are ready to lay eggs.
There is no doubt, the SWD season has begun in New York and it looks as if the 'mild winter early arrival' predictions may prove true. Please note: this finding won't show up on the SWD distribution map, because research trap sites aren't part of the 'map-reporting' monitoring network.
Get your order in NOW for exclusion netting to cover your berry planting and protect it from SWD infestation. Contact Dale Ila Riggs, The Berry Patch, Stephentown, NY at berryprotection@fairpoint.net.
"The system worked extremely well. In 2014, with the 80 gram netting, at most, only 0.53 percent infestation occurred in a 10 week harvest season. Unsprayed berries without exclusion netting had as high as a 60% infestation level in one sampling period alone. In 2015, using the 80 gram netting, at most, a 0.37% infestation was found over a 5 week harvest season. Sprayed berries without exclusion netting had as high as a 20% infestation level in an individual sampling period. The netting held up through 3 severe thunderstorms and 2 hail storms and we refined our attachment system for large scale deployment of large pieces of netting.
This system has great potential for small scale, organic, and no-spray blueberry growers and I believe the system can be used by raspberry growers as well."
Beautiful, ripe raspberries without SWD, that's the goal of every berry grower these days! Including Dale Ila Riggs, The Berry Patch, Stephentown, NY.
You can order the exclusion netting from Dale Ila Riggs, The Berry Patch, Stephentown, NY. For questions, contact her at berryprotection@fairpoint.net. Orders with Tek-Knit must be finalized this week.
If you've been considering protecting your berries from SWD with exclusion netting, read the report to see if this approach could work on your farm. Don't delay, contact Dale Ila to get the netting you need as part of her bulk order with Tek-Knit.
The SWD monitoring network Counties are all positive for SWD as of last week, August 28, 2015. A lot of SWD are being caught in traps in research sites now with population numbers expected to climb into the thousands before frost knocks them back and forces them into winter diapause.
All sites in NY's SWD monitoring network reported SWD by the end of August. Counties in white did not have traps reporting to the network.
Reports are coming in of severely infested fall raspberries. This fall will be especially challenging for fall harvest of susceptible fruits. Blackberries and raspberries are particularly vulnerable and will require intensive management with sanitation and insecticide protection. One sanitation strategy used in California for berries is for workers to crush any fruit that has fallen to the ground, reducing the chance of larvae surviving to grow into egg-laying adults. For insecticides, maintaining good coverage is essential, so keep track of rain events that can wash off insecticide (>0.5 inch) and reapply at the appropriate interval listed on the labels.
Late-season blueberries, peaches, plums and grapes are vulnerable to infestation, though not as susceptible as brambles, it will be wise to examine the crop for infestation. Fruit that is softer than it should be, with dull sunken areas and tiny drops of sap may be infested. Hold marketable fruit samples on white paper towels for a day or so and rotate it to see if it is leaking from tiny pinholes indicative of larval breathing sites. Use salt floatation to float out larvae and assess the relative abundance of larval infestation and severity of the problem. Place 50 ripe, marketable fruit in a plastic bag, cover with salt solution (1 Tbsp salt/cup water) and examine in 15-30 minutes for emerging larvae. Larvae are small 1-3 mm or 1/16-2/16 inch long. More on checking fruit for infestation is in the blog Do my fruit have SWD?
Infestations can contribute to sour rot in grapes and fruit decays in other fruit crops. Severely infested raspberries will appear to melt off the plants.
If fruit is still ripening and ripe fruit is infested, clean pick allripe and overripe fruit and discard it to remove the developing SWD population from the planting. After clean picking and sanitation, apply an effective insecticide to protect the ripening fruit.
Discard infested fruit in clear plastic bags held in the sun to solarize and kill larvae or freeze it. Holding culled fruit in tightly closed plastic bags will prevent SWD adults to emerge from the infested fruit into the environment.
High temperature will dissuade SWD, but hot days this past week in NY have been followed by cool nights which has likely allowed SWD adults to escape the impact of the heat. High humidity is conducive to SWD development, so that factor will also weigh in to make management difficult this fall. The microclimate in the fruit planting can be altered with pruning practices, so plan now to prune for a more open plant canopy in 2016.
Consult the resources in the right hand side bar for more information on SWD.
Two SWD were caught on August 18, 2015 in traps set in raspberry & blueberry in Steuben County. This site is being monitored by Stephanie Mehlenbacher, Steuben County Cornell Cooperative Extension. (GDD = 1776, day length = 13:44)
Only three sites in the NY monitoring network have not yet reported SWD finds. If you have ripe or ripening fruit to be harvested, consider a strict regimen to manage SWD: judicious insecticide applications (tree fruit, grapes, berry crops), immediate refrigeration of harvested fruit, squashing any fruit that falls to the ground, clean picking overripe and unmarketable fruit, weed control, and pruning to maintain an open canopy and promote earlier bearing in brambles.
Three SWD, two female and one male, were caught on August 11, 2015 in traps set in blueberry. The SWD were in the trap set on the edge of the crop. This site is being monitored by Jim O'Connell, Ulster County Cooperative Extension and Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. (GDD = 2019, day length = 14:00)
It is very likely that SWD is present across NY State wherever tender, ripe fruit is found. Consider what your SWD management strategy will be. Make plans for dealing with this introduced, invasive pest in your berry crops by reading up on horticultural strategies that make sense in the era of SWD.
Now found in 25 of 28 (89%) of Counties in the SWD monitoring network, 2015 will be challenging for late fruit crops in NY. Traps have caught SWD two weeks in a row in 22 of the 25 NY Counties reporting SWD finds.
The SWD distribution map for the NY State monitoring network, as of August 17, 2015. Minor modifications were done to the map to show that SWD was found in August in Saratoga County and no SWD has been found to date in Columbia, Dutchess, and Steuben Counties, as compared to the online distribution map, to account for those locations where online reports have not been submitted to date.
Of the 48 monitoring sites across NY, only 5 have not yet caught SWD; 90% of all SWD monitoring sites have positive reports of SWD caught in traps.
Some monitoring network participants are sampling fruit, when SWD is first caught in traps, and checking for infestation with salt floatation. At first trap catch, most fruit samples have few to no SWD larvae or eggs in a 50-fruit sample. Monitor your fruit for symptoms and signs of SWD infestation using the methods described in the blog, Do my fruit have SWD?
Those sites where SWD hasn't been caught yet are characterized as having fruit that is not yet ripe, such as fall raspberry, or low fruit set possibly due to the cold winter, such as in blueberry.
Some monitoring sites reported high numbers of SWD in late July/early August, the second consecutive week of trap catch - e.g. 83 in Washington County, 40 in Cayuga County. Cooperators are pulling traps once at sustained catch.
Researchers in Greg Loeb's lab, Department of Entomology, Geneva, studying different lures in the Finger Lakes region are now catching 20-40 SWD per trap. Sites in their study with rigorous spray schedules catch less than 10 SWD per trap. Research projects are wrapping up, too.
Our focus is to provide early warning of SWD arrival in NY State. We will continue reporting on the SWD monitoring network until all sites have caught SWD. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please let me know.
14 SWD were caught today, August 17, 2015, in traps set in blueberry in Clinton County, 10 males in traps set in the interior of the crop and 4 males in traps set on the edge of the crop. These traps are being monitored by Lindsey Pashow, technician, and Amy Ivy, educator & director, Clinton County Cornell Cooperative Extension. These males may be lonely...? Another review of trap contents on Wednesday will confirm whether females are absent. Regardless, don't think for a minute that absence of females means your crop is safe. They could be out laying eggs and ignoring the lure of food provided by the traps. Only three Counties in the 29-County network have not yet caught SWD (Columbia, Dutchess, and Steuben). If your crop is ripe - take steps to manage SWD. If your crop is on the verge of ripening - make plans to protect it from SWD. (GDD = 1793, day length = 13:55)
