10 

 Table 1. Pesticide use in Massachusetts IPM apple orchards, 



Dosage equivalents of 



No. 

 orchards 



Year or blocks Insecticide Miticide 



** 



1977 (Before IPM) 16 9.1 1.8 



1978 (IPM pilot prog.) 8 



1979 " " 16 



1980 " " 18 



1981 " " 19 



1982 " " 36 



Dosage equivalent = actual amount of pesticide used divided by amount 



recommended in Pest Control Guide. 



Does not include oil spray against overwintering mite eggs. 



knowledge gained of the behavior and ecology of pests and beneficial predators 

 and on employment of behavior-manipulation techniques as a substitute for use 

 of most pesticide treatments. 



For the past 6 years (1981-86), one form of this second stage of apple IPM 

 has been used at my small (50-tree) orchard of disease-resistant apple trees in 

 Conway, MA. The approach has been as follows: (a) application of a pre-bloom 

 oil treatment against overwintering San Jose scale and eggs of the European red 

 mite; (b) 2 applications of Imidan (one at petal fall and another 10 to 14 days 

 later) for control of European apple sawfly, plum curculio, and first- 

 generation codling moth; and (c) use of red-sphere visual traps (1 or 2 per 

 tree) to capture and thereby control apple maggot fly adults. Table 2 is a 

 summary of the average percent (1984-86) of clean and insect-injured fruit on 

 the experimental orchard trees compared with several neighboring (200 meters 

 away), unsprayed trees. 



This use of only 2 dosage equivalents of insecticide (compared with 5 to 6 

 in the average first-stage IPM orchard and 9 in non-IPM orchards) is not the 

 only benefit realized. The absence of any insecticide use from 10 to 14 days 

 after petal fall (early June) through the remainder of the growing season has 

 allowed key predators and parasites of mites, aphids, leafhoppers, leafminers, 

 and San Jose scale to flourish during summer months. The result has been no 

 need to make any application of miticide or other pesticide for control of 

 these secondary pests. In our opinion, this result strongly suggests that the 



