College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

• Apple sucker

  Adult resembles a miniature cicada, greenish yellow to yellow in color but sometimes containing reds or browns, with eyes pale green to reddish brown, and long slender antennae; wings are transparent and iridescent.

• Bitter rot

  Bitter rot appears on young fruit as small, circular brown lesions. Lesions expand rapidly and radially under wet and warm conditions. As they age, they turn darker brown and become sunken.

• American plum borer

  The adult is a light grayish brown moth with reddish brown forewings marked by wavy black and brown vertical bands about two-thirds the distance from the base.

• Peach bark beetle

  Adult's body is brown with many punctures, from which arise yellowish hairs. The larva is a small, legless grub.

• Blister spot

  Lesions begin as small, darkened, water-soaked areas, generally around lenticels and typically on the lower half of the apple.

• Buffalo treehopper

  The pale green adult exhibits a large thorax with two "horns" and a long posterior wedge-shaped body. The cream-colored eggs are laid in a groove on the tree bark, where they overwinter.

• White rot

  Fruit lesions become visible 4–6 weeks before harvest, and appear as small, circular, slightly sunken tan to brown spots, sometimes surrounded by a red halo on yellow-skinned fruit.

• Pear midge

  The adult resembles a very small mosquito or gnat; the body is brown and the wings transparent with simple veins. The larva is a white maggot with no legs or visible head; the posterior end is blunt, and the front end tapers to a point.

• Periodical cicada

  Adults are wedge-shaped, nearly black, with red eyes and red-orange wing veins. The clear wings are held tent-like over the body.

• Flatheaded appletree borer

  The adult is a short-horned beetle, flattened above, with short antennae and large conspicuous eyes. The upper surface of the body is dark metallic brown with slightly patterned wing covers.

• Assassin bugs

  The head is narrow and elongate with the portion behind the eyes neck-like. Sometimes a sculptured crest may be found on the pronotum. The front legs are specialized for hunting.

• Apple leaf (curling) midge

  The adult is a tiny dark brown fly, and the larva is a yellow-white maggot with a reddish tinge.

• Comstock mealybug

  Adult females and nymphs are generally similar in appearance, having an elongate-oval shape, no wings, a many-segmented body and well-developed legs.

• Leafhoppers, about

  Potato leafhopper (PLH) can be differentiated from white apple leafhopper by color and by observing movement and feeding habits.

• Hover flies

  The adult is a fly that mimics the coloration of wasps; it often hovers during flight. It is found among aphid colonies, often co-existing with other predators such as the gall midge.

• European red mite

  Adult female European red mites are less than 0.5 mm and dark red with eight legs. Adult males are smaller than the females and have a pointed abdomen. Males are usually dull green to brown.

• European fruit scale

  The female is immobile and covered with a circular waxy shell that becomes dark gray over time and is elevated at the center. The adult male is brownish red with an elongated abdomen, long antennae and wings.

• Apple maggot

  Adults are black flies with three or four white cross bands on the abdomen, a prominent white spot at the posterior end of the thorax, and the wings are marked with black bands in the shape of an "F".

• Pistol casebearer

  Adult is dark gray with fringed wings. The pistol casebearer appears similar to a cigar casebearer: a small, yellowish larva with a black head that builds and hides in a shelter.

• Calyx end rot

  Symptoms begin at the calyx end of the fruit, causing a reddish discoloration at the site of infection. The rot is at first soft, but eventually dries out, turning tan to brown with a red border.