Management of Plum Curculio and Catfacing Insects on Peaches in Central Alabama: Standard Crop Stage–Based vs. Integrated Pest Management–Based Approaches

Abstract

ABSTRACT Plum curculio, tarnished plant bug, brown stink bug, and green stink bug are the major insect pests causing fruit damage on peaches grown in the southeastern United States. Insect management aids, monitoring techniques, predictive models, and action thresholds for southeastern peaches are either lacking or they are not robust enough to facilitate industry acceptance of as-needed insecticide applications during the growing season (Horton et al., 2003). In this 3-year study, we compared two approaches to scheduling insecticide applications for control of these pests on three peach cultivars in an established central Alabama orchard: 1) an industry standard, representative of prevailing practice in the southeastern United States, which consisted of scheduled insecticide applications timed to coincide with crop stage; and 2) an integrated pest management (IPM) treatment, which employed limited prescheduled insecticide applications timed to coincide with the crop's developmental stage, supplemented with as-needed insecticide applications when preestablished action thresholds were reached. Percentage of insect-damaged fruit from trees under the IPM treatment was similar to, or in some cases greater or less than, that of fruit from trees receiving the standard treatment. Depending on the year, the same or fewer insecticide applications were made under the IPM treatment compared with the standard treatment. The IPM treatment came close to providing acceptable levels of plum curculio control with the early-season cultivar Correll but not with the mid- and late-season cultivars Sunland and Biscoe.