Impact of Cultivation and Subsequent Burial on Cydia pomonella (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) and Conotrachelus nenuphar (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Abstract

We assessed the efficacy of cultivation as a potential management strategy for codling moth, Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), and plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar Herbst (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in apple orchards. Cocooned codling moth pupae and thinning apples infested with plum curculio larvae were cultivated over in the field. Emergence, percent burial, damage to buried fruit, and depth of burial was recorded. In the laboratory, both insects were buried at variable depths in sand and potting soil and emergence was measured. A greater proportion of plum curculio larvae buried in infested fruit under laboratory conditions survived to adulthood compared with unburied infested fruit, down to 15 cm. No codling moth adults emerged from under 1 cm or more of sand. Buried codling moth larvae experienced drastically reduced survival to adulthood compared with unburied larvae. These results indicate that strip cultivation may negatively impact codling moth diapausing larvae and pupae on the ground, but not likely to negatively impact plum curculio in infested dropped apples.

Cultural Control of Giant Sugarcane Borer, Telchin licus (Lepidoptera: Castniidae), by Soil Mounding to Impede Adult Emergence

“…Furthermore, not all the soil deposited by the mounding treatments resulted in burial of stalks to the same depth, which may have permitted some adults to escape through emergence holes close to the soil surface. Similarly, when larvae of Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) were buried at different depths, a fraction of adult moths managed to emerge successfully (Baughman et al 2015).…”

“…Burial via tillage also can provide effective control of pests that pupate in litter on the soil surface, such as the grape berry moth, Paralobesia viteana Clemens (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) (Matlock et al 2017). Burial of mature larvae of the codling moth, C. pomonella, below a depth of 1 cm resulted in complete mortality of all insects (Baughman et al 2015). However, tillage and burial also have potential for controlling pests that pupate within plant material or crop residues.…”

“…In cotton, for example, populations of boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), and bollworms, Helicoverpa zea Bodie (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), are favored by no-till practices because tillage reduces the survival of their pupae in the soil (Henneberry & Clayton 1979;Gaylor & Foster 1987;Henneberry et al 1991). In apple orchards, survival of mature larvae of the codling moth, C. pomonella, can be reduced to zero by burial under 1 cm or more of sand (Baughman et al 2015).…”

Routine On-farm Soil Tillage Helps Control Asparagus Fly (Plioreocepta Poeciloptera)

“…The effects of different soil cultivation methods on insects may vary between species, time of cultivation, soil type and insect life stage (Johnson et al 1984;Stinner and House 1990;Seal et al 1992;Chu et al 1996;Holland and Luff 2000;Holland and Reynolds 2003;Baughman et al 2015;Matlock et al 2017;Alyokhin et al 2020) and cannot be generalised. Since the soil samples were mixed before the boxes were filled, the depth position of the individual pupae within the boxes can be expected to be random.…”