- Author: Mary Lou Nicoletti, Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner
The Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) is present in urban and natural areas of the county, and can easily migrate into agricultural fields. British Columbia, Canada has zero tolerance for LBAM in shipments of plants and harvested crops. Growers whose fruit will be shipped to British Columbia, Canada must sign a Compliance Agreement with the Agricultural Commissioner. One of the critical elements of that Compliance Agreement is visual field scouting for the LBAM.
Visual Field Scouting Requirements:
- Must begin at least 30 days prior to harvesting fruit for export to British Columbia, Canada.
- Must be performed weekly during the harvest season.
- Written records of the scouting must be kept by the grower.
- The scouting must be done by a licensed Pest Control Advisor (PCA) OR an “approved scout”.
Approved Scout:
- A licensed PCA is an approved scout.
- Growers provide the Agricultural Commissioner with the name of their PCA, who will do the weekly scouting.
- The PCA may be unable to perform the required weekly scouting for the grower, due to weather, a recent pesticide application, or simply because he or she is too busy.
- It may be helpful for growers to assign alternate qualified “approved scouts” to ensure the scouting is performed and recorded on a weekly basis.
- Mark Bolda, UCCE Caneberry and Strawberry Advisor, can provide training and an “Approved Scout” certificate to those who attend the training. Mark is holding trainings in May.
- Approved Scout trainings are scheduled to be given at the UCCE Auditorium, 1432 Freedom Boulevard in Watsonville
o May 28 will be in English – 3PM to 4 PM
o May 29 will be in Spanish – 3 PM to 4 PM
Importance:
- Canada is our county's largest trading partner.
- Serious consequences will result if LBAM is intercepted by Canadian officials on a shipment.
- The grower's records will be examined; if the grower has not complied with the terms of the Compliance Agreement, fines can be levied on the grower.
- The entire industry will be affected. Canada could refuse to accept harvested fruit from the County of Santa Cruz or the State of California. This would cause a drop in price received for all growers due to the extra supply of berries in the market.
- Author: Mark Bolda
UCCE Farm Advisor Mark Bolda will be providing a training on light brown apple moth (LBAM) that qualifies attendees to be an “approved scout” relating to the Compliance Agreement for shipment of berries to Canada. On completion of the brief training, attendees will receive a Certificate as a record of their participation.
This training will be held once in English and once in Spanish.
Where: UCCE Auditorium, 1432 Freedom Boulevard, Watsonville, CA
When: March 4 – 8:00-9:00 AM in English
March 5 – 8:00-9:00 AM in Spanish
No pre-registration necessary. All are welcome to attend, even if they do not intend to ship berries to Canada.
No continuing education hours will be offered at this meeting.
Please call Mark at (831) 763 8025 if you have any questions.
- Author: Mark Bolda
Yes, light brown apple moth (LBAM) are being found in both conventional and organic berry fields right now, so please growers and field people be taking care to keep them out. A field closure is not pleasant for anybody involved, so do all you can to keep this pest out - pheromone based twist ties, sprays and yes even physical removal of rolls.
I've included the current USDA - CDFA protocol provided to me by Laura Irons, Senior Environmental Scientist with the CDFA, for approved sprays. Note the length of time between the regulated spray of most of the materials and the time that inspectors come back - it's from 10 to even 20 days, which is a heck of a long time to be out of the market. PLEASE do all you can to keep LBAM out of your fields.
I've also added the link to the USDA/CDFA LBAM inspection protocol at coolers, processors and packing facilities. It hasn't changed from the past seasons, but it's worth a review as our production year heats up.
http://ucanr.edu/blogs/strawberries_caneberries/blogfiles/7341.pdf
LBAMApprovedTreatments (2)
- Author: Mark Bolda
This is an announcement for a light brown apple moth (LBAM) training meeting to be held this coming May 9 at 40 Zils Road in Watsonville. The purpose of the meeting is for growers and others to obtain LBAM identification certification in order to be able to implement on-farm Integrated Pest Management practices to meet San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz County quarantine area compliance agreement requirements for export.
Everyone planning to attend the meeting must RSVP for this meeting by contacting Sofia Hernandez of the California Strawberry Commission at shernandez@calstrawberry.org, (831)724-1301 or Hillary Thomas, hthomas@calstrawberry.org, (831)254-1184.
The link for the meeting announcement and agenda is:
- Author: Mark Bolda
Strawberry and caneberry growers should be reminded that the CDFA-USDA regulatory program for light brown apple moth is still regnant in Santa Cruz and north Monterey counties this year and we should all be taking steps to reduce numbers of this pest in the production fields. I communicated with Rick McKay, head of the USDA-APHIS regulatory effort for this area, and he assured me the program will be active again in 2013 in the same way it was active last year, at least until September 30.
Pheromone based twist ties are a good way to reduce LBAM numbers in fields, especially in raspberries and blackberries since the ties are attached to the trellis with very little effort and time. The twist ties are still available through the Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner at 763-8080. There are still quite a few left, and a quick call to the distributor Pacific Biocontrol Corporation reassured me that these ties, which were received in 2010, are still viable since they are being stored in a cooler and are in their original packaging. These twist ties cost nothing and give growers a good measure of protection against LBAM infestation and the accompanying regulation.
