Management with Emerging Insecticide Tools

T he Tortricidae, a family of lepidopteran insects, have challengedNew York State fruit growers since the arrival of the first European apple trees in the early 17th century. ‘Apple worms ’ and surface feeding larvae con-tinue to damage our commercially grown fruit. This ‘Lepidoptera Com-plex ’ includes numerous species, more commonly known as the codling moth, oriental fruit worm, lesser apple worm, and the obliquebanded leafroller. In abandoned and poorly managed or-chards many more species can be found, comprising a very diverse complex of insect pests feeding on the fruit, foliage, and wood of apple throughout the northeast. Agricultural research conducted during the past 100 years has provided a variety of literature citations regard-ing insecticide resistance of the insect pest complex plaguing the apple. The codling moth is the most notable of these pests, exhibiting insecticide resis-tance during the early era of chemical development. Its believed to be the first lepidopteran insect noted to be resistant to the arsenical insecticides in the late 1920’s and again shortly after the devel-opment of DDT. Recent reports fro