Just a real quick note here.  Got a useful inquiry yesterday regarding the presence of the moth depicted below in a local berry field.

The moth in question is California oakworm, Phyrganidia californica, the larvae of which feed strictly on oaks.  It is harmless to berries.  It does seem though this year we have an exceptionally large number of them around and you may be finding them flying around the field or resting on plants, especially if your field is next to oaks.

Additionally, the California oakworm larva (depicted in picture # 2 below), although it would be rare to find one in a berry field, looks nothing like light brown apple moth or any other pestiferous larvae we would commonly expect in caneberries or strawberries.

A few notes for area growers on the current status of several invasive pests:

1. European Grapevine Moth (EGVM):  Thanks to efforts of the USDA, the Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner and UCCE, the EGVM Technical Working Group has determined that evidence in the literature is scant, contradictory and does not support regulation of Rubus, and therefore recommended that this plant genus no longer be regulated for EGVM. 

Once this recommendation is written into the Federal Order (expected to happen in March, but could be later), caneberries will no longer be regulated for EGVM.  It is supposed at the level of the California Department of Food and Agriculture that Canada would also then allow caneberry fruit in again without regulation.

2. Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM): Light brown apple moth continues to be a regulated insect in strawberries and caneberries. Therefore, inspections by the USDA of harvested fruit will continue this season, and LBAM positive larval finds at the cooler will result in field inspection and possible closure of at least part of the production field until the infestation has been eliminated.  Since a LBAM moth flight generally starts to take place in March, it is strongly recommended that growers start to now put out the pheromone based twist ties available to them from the Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner.

3. Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB):  No finds of this pest yet in this area, but there have been several finds in Davis last year and one that I know of personally earlier this year.  The positive of this pest not being regulated is unfortunately heavily tempered by the difficulty of its control.   While it is by no means destiny that brown marmorated stink bug actually gets here, it is nevertheless good to be alert that the possibility has become greater over the past year.

I had a fruitful meeting with PPQ Supervisor Rick McKay, Inspector Leah Gayagas and currently serving Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner Mary Lou Nicoletti on May 19.  This meeting was concerning the current inspection and field closure procedures for light brown apple moth in strawberry and caneberry growers in the quarantine zone which covers all of Santa Cruz county and most of the berry production areas of North Monterey counties.
At the time of the meeting, three raspberry fields and one strawberry fields had been closed because of positive finds, so this matter is of considerable urgency to the berry growing community.

Inspections are to take place for each grower every thirty days, either at the cooler for those sending fruit there, or at the field for those growers who are sending fruit out of the quarantine zone venues such as farmer's markets and fruit stands.  In addition to this, it is worth reminding growers who are growing fruit for export out of the USA that county phytosanitary inspections are also being done on every load, and they will forward suspect leafrollers to the USDA PPQ program.

Inspections are being done as before, that is to say that 2% of a designated load are evaluated for leafroller presence.  If a leafroller is found in the load- and this means any leafroller species - a hold is put on the load and also on the field from where the load came.  If no leafrollers are found, the field is clear for another thirty days.  A suspect leafroller gets shipped up to the identification laboratory in Sacramento immediately via FedEx and a positive or negative determination should be available within one or two days of the find.  If determined to be positive, the hold on the fruit and field continues, if negative then the hold on the fruit and field is lifted.  As noted before however, if the larva is very small or is in the pupal stage, the determination will take longer, maybe up to a week and a half.

Field closure is done after an inspection of the field from where the infested load originated.  Size of the closure is not arbitrary, it depends on where the larvae are.  If they are in a corner of the field only, then only that corner will be closed.   If they are spread evenly through the field, then the whole field will unfortunately be closed.  Growers should be aware of the trend of finding more leafrollers along the edges of fields in wooded and riparian areas.

One key point out of this meeting for berry growers and their consultants is that once a hold is put on a field, it must be inspected for light brown apple moth larvae before being released.  The date of inspection is negotiable, and it might not necessarily be in one's best interest to have a field inspected immediately, since if there are no larvae found, then the hold on the field is lifted and no regulated spray and subsequent field inspection necessary.  So, it would seem a good thing for growers experiencing a load hold and subsequent field hold to get that field cleaned up right away.  Arrangements can generally be made for inspectors to come out a few days after a hold is put in place, which would give the grower time to spray a fast acting material like a spinosyn and run a crew through and pick out leaf rolls.  By doing all of this effectively, the grower avoids the burden of dealing with the regulated spray (and it's disappointingly short list of allowed chemicals) and follow up inspections.  By moving quickly, the grower can avoid all that.

The attachment below is the USDA inspection protocol for fruit inspected at a cooler.

There have been now two field closures over the past week in the Watsonville-Salinas berry production district, and the following is meant to make some sense to growers for what to do to minimize losses in the event of a leafroller larva detection.

USDA inspectors are not agriculturalists, nor pest managers for that matter.   We in the industry should be aware that they are bound by a set of rules that at times may seem at odds with sound pest management, but it yet is incumbent upon us as professionals to work with them and come out with the best solution for both parties which is the elimination of leafrollers and re-opening of the field with as little impact to the normal management of the field as possible.  

Growers should be aware that outside of the USDA inspections taking place monthly at each cooler, fruit sent for export out of the USA is being sampled and inspected by county personnel. They have long done this to look for pathogens and other insects and recently this repetoire has been including leafroller larvae.  On finding a suspect larva, the county inspector forwards it to USDA inspectors, who will make an identification of the larva if possible at the cooler and also forward it on to the DNA identification laboratory in Sacramento.  The process from find to absolute positive identification at the DNA lab is about a week, but can take longer in the case of very small larvae or pupae.
It appears that growers are advised of a possible LBAM find on the same day, and a hold is put on the source field.   Inspectors will pay a visit to the hold field to find larvae, which they inevitably do.  Now, the grower has the option of re-routing fruit from the field under the hold order to clients within the quarantine area or destroying it. Both have happened this last week.  It is truly tragic when another market cannot be found for fruit, but such is the nature of this quarantine.  
Once advised of the hold, arrangements are made to have inspectors observe a pesticide application of the infested field with the purported goal of controlling LBAM.  In the interest of time, the process of arranging a pesticide application and field re-inspection is allowed to move forward even in the absence of a full positive identification for LBAM.  Time of initial suspect LBAM find to time of observed spray seems to depend on a number of factors, but generally happens within a week.

In berries, the list of allowed pesticides for inspector observed, mandated sprays is unfortunately rather short.  For strawberry growers, fortunately Intrepid, Entrust and several Bt formulations are included, but notably Coragen, Success and Radiant, which are highly effective and actually have light brown apple moth on their labels along with being pretty soft on beneficials and the surrounding environment, are not allowed.  Instead, we are additionally allowed crude materials such carbaryl (7 day pre-harvest interval, pollinator caution, devastating to beneficials), and chlorpyrifos (21 day pre-harvest interval, seriously harmful to beneficials). A superior type horticultural oil is allowed, but only at a minimum rate of 1% volume to volume, which for a petroleum distillate is pretty risky in sensitive crops like strawberries or caneberries.
Once the approved pesticide application is done, arrangements are made to have the field re-inspected in the interests of confirming that it has been cleared of leafroller larvae and re-opening it.  This is a rather important point for berry growers, because when this happens depends on what material that has been applied.  Based on our experience, inspections have been taking place one day after an application of Entrust, and more than several days after Bt formulations.  If you are willing to take a chance of burning your plants and fruit, the superior type oils also are supposed to give one day. Intrepid and Confirm as insect growth regulators (IGR's) are known to act more slowly so again garner a re-inspection after more than a few days.
It seems in light of all of the above, the strategy that berry growers should be taking in relation to leafroller management should be as per the following:

1- Keep fields clear of leafrollers. Period.
2- In the unfortunate event of a possible LBAM find and hold on the field, spray the field IMMEDIATELY with the very effective and labeled materials such as Coragen or Radiant in strawberries and Delegate in caneberries. By doing so, you are giving these materials time to act in full while you make arrangements for inspections and sprays with the USDA.
3- Make arrangements for mandated spray with the USDA.  
4- Make application of Entrust since you should be able to get inspectors in the next day to confirm that it has cleared the field of leafrollers.  
5- Undergo inspection from USDA to re-open field. Note that your spray of the better material from the day of the hold will now have taken full effect along with the effects of the Entrust, and you should by now have dramatically reduced, if not eliminated, leafroller larvae from your field.

There are pesticides mentioned for management of leafrollers and light brown apple moth in this article. Before using any of these products, check with your local Agricultural Commissioner's Office and consult product labels for current status of product registration, restrictions, and use information.