ASSESSING THE FEEDING PREFERENCES OF THREE EARLY-SEASON INSECT HERBIVORES ACROSS SIX APPLE CULTIVARS

The overreliance on chemical controls in agricultural production has contributed to widespread insecticide resistance and the development of long-term health complications in humans, emphasizing the need for alternative pest management strategies. Trap cropping and habitat manipulation can be used as integrated pest management (IPM) techniques for insect monitoring and to attract pests to preferred host crops. This study investigated three early-season insect herbivores— including the rosy apple aphid (RAA), Dysaphis plantaginea (Hemiptera: Aphididae), green apple aphid (GAA), Aphis pomi (Hemiptera: Aphididae), and pear thrips Taeniothrips inconsequens (Thysanoptera)— which can cause significant damage to apple tree foliage and crop yields if left uncontrolled. Research was conducted across two Massachusetts orchards during the 2023 and 2024 growing seasons and focused on multi-cultivar grafted apple trees that contained six cultivars (Liberty, Red Astrachan, Ginger Gold, Dabinett, Wickson, and Yellow Transparent) and a Stock branch. Fruit clusters were randomly sampled per cultivar/tree and assessed for three biological parameters: insect incidence, abundance, and parasitism (2023 only, for RAA). The diversity of natural enemies was also recorded from 2023-2024. Results from 2023 revealed that Red Astrachan, Ginger Gold, and the Stock (the original cultivar present on the apple trees) were more attractive to RAA, while Wickson showed consistently higher infestations of GAA and pear thrips in 2024. These findings support the use of multi-cultivar grafted apple trees as part of an ECOstaking approach to insect pest monitoring on apple trees, with the potential to reduce chemical inputs by concentrating pest pressure in targeted areas