Pests fruit

Unlike vegetable crops, which share many of the same pests, fruit crops are affected by a wide variety of insects and diseases. Because fruit crops are borne on so many types of plants—including fruit trees, berry bushes, vines, and herbaceous plants such as strawberries—they have a wide range of cultural requirements as well. However, regardless of the crop you are growing, there are basic steps you can take to help prevent and control insects and diseases. 

Dennehy, T. J. Hoffman, C. J. Nyrop, J. P. Saunders, M. C. In Monitoring and Integrated Management of Arthropod Pests of Small Fruit Crops, Intercept London, 1990 pp. 261-282. 

The discovery that, in industrialised societies, diets deficient in fruits and vegetables can effectively double the risk of developing many different types of cancer has focused renewed attention on the beneficial properties of these foods (Block e/a/., 1992 Patterson ef a/., 1990 Southon and Faulks, 2002). As we have seen, plant foods are rich in micronutrients, but they also contain an immense variety of biologically active secondary metabolites providing colour, flavour and natural toxicity to pests and sometimes humans (Johnson et ah, 1994). The chemistry and classification of such substances is still a matter for much research and debate, but this has not prevented attempts to isolate and exploit substances that have variously been termed protective factors , phytoprotectants , phytochemicals and nutraceuticals . Phytochemical compounds include ... 

Acetamiprid is a neonicotinoid insecticide with outstanding systemic activities and a broad insecticidal spectrum. Acetamiprid controls diverse soil and foliar insect pests infesting cotton, sugar beet, vegetables, fruits and other major food crops by both contact and stomach action... 

The Dacus fly (Dacus oleae, olive fly), a pest producing serious damage to olives and one related to other flies that attack a variety of fruits, is also highly susceptible to aldrin (6). 

Some of DDT s effects seemed counterproductive, too. It actually encouraged some citrus-fruit pests by destroying their predators. It killed all the insects in an area, even beneficial ones, so birds and other small creatures that depended on insects for food also died. 

Proteolytic enzymes Animals, including insects and other arthropods or their larval forms Dusts from barley, oats, rye, wheat or maize, or Biological washing powders and the baking, brewing, fish, silk and leather industries Research and educational laboratories, pest control and fruit cultivation The baking or flour milling industry or on farms... 

It is expected that taxonomically related species which have developed from a common ancestor also exhibit similarity at the pheromone level. An interesting typical representative can be observed in the family Tortricidae. This family includes a multitude of agricultural pest insects such as leaf-rollers and fruit-borers, whose sex pheromones have been exhaustively investigated [33]. Among the four subfamilies in Tortricidae, Tortricinae and Olethreutinae are the major two,... 

Fruits are still sold and consumed mainly fresh, essentially as they are picked from the tree. On the tree, however, fruit (e.g. apples) remain exposed to the attacks of diseases, pests and climatic stress factors during 130-160 days of the year. Given the often low tolerance among consumers for even minor blemishes on fruit, it is a complex and laborious task for fruit growers to keep the fruit in a visibly attractive and immaculate state... 

Owing to the prohibition of chemosynthetic pesticides under organic farming standards, there is a greatly reduced availability of intervention/treatment-based methods for disease and pest control in organic fruit production systems. The efficacy of the permitted biological control, extract or mineral element (e.g. S and Cu)-based crop protection products is also usually lower than of chemosynthetic pesticides. Permitted plant protection products show efficacies of between 60 and 80% while chemosynthetic fungicides and pesticides often have efficacy levels >95% (Tamm et al., 2004). 

As a result, organic fruit growers have to make maximum use of preventative or indirect plant protection measures, some of which were already described in terms of their effect on fruit quality (e.g. lower planting densities, see sections above). However, there remains an increased risk for pests and diseases causing stress, decreased photosynthetic activity and capacity. Also in certain sensitive cultivars, the application of permitted plant protection products (such as lime sulphur) can result in phytotoxic effects or latent stress in trees (Palmer et al, 2002). The decrease in photosynthetic activity by both pest/disease attack and pesticides may, in turn, result in reduced fruit quality. Both long-term latent and short-term acute side effects of organic plant protection products have not yet been sufficiently investigated. 

Tamm, L., Haseli, A., Fuchs, J.G., Weibel, F.P. and Wyss, E. (2004). Organic fruit production in humid climates of Europe Bottlenecks and new approaches in disease and pest control , Acta Horticulturae (ISHS), 638, 333-339. 

Emulsifiable concentrate applied once after fruiting and infestation with high-pressure ground sprayers at 0.98 kg/ha to control insect pests... 

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