College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

• Green pug

  The adult is a grayish moth with mottled or scalloped dark striations toward the wing margins. The larva is a green inchworm with a dark head and a dark reddish brown dorsal mid-line present in later instars.

• Minute pirate bug

  Adults are very similar in size to the mullein plant bug (Campylomma varbasci), but their head is narrower and their wings are colored contrasting white and black.

• Verticillium wilt

  Leaves wilted or browned on one or several branches, often remaining attached; the rest of the tree appears healthy. Young trees are often killed by infection.

• San Jose scale

  Adult males are minute, winged insects about 1 mm long and golden brown with a reddish tinge. Scales may be either disk-shaped or oval, and are composed of concentric rings of gray-brown wax radiating from a tiny white knob.

• Mineola moth (Destructive pruneworm)

  Adult is a bluish gray moth that assumes a wedge shape when at rest. It has a transverse broad white stripe bordered by a smaller reddish brown stripe in the middle of the forewings a smaller set of similar bands occur near the posterior edge.

• Stink bugs

  The adult has an oval shield-shaped body, grayish or brownish in color; a spur is present on each side of its thorax. Eggs, grouped in masses of 20 to 30, are in the shape of small barrels. They are gray, cream or gold-colored, decorated by a ring of small hairs.

• Rusty spot

  Lesions begin as small, circular, tan to orange blemishes approximately 3–5 mm in diameter. The discoloration is due to discoloring of the fuzz on the fruit.

• Western flower thrips and flower thrips

  Western flower thrips and Flower thrips are indistinguishable without a microscope. Adults are slender and yellowish, with short antennae; the wings are long and narrow, and held over the abdomen.

• X-Disease

  This disease is caused by a mycoplasma and infects many varieties of stone fruits. On cherry, infected trees tend to develop a dieback and a generally unthrifty appearance. Infected trees decline, but the rate of decline is dependent on the rootstock.

• Spring cankerworm

  The adult male is gray and has winding lines on its forewings the female has stumpy gray wings. The larva is pale green to dark brown with two yellow longitudinal bands on the sides. It moves in a looping inchworm fashion.

• Plum pox virus

  There is considerable variation in symptoms, depending on which species of stone fruit is affected, variety, age, and general nutritional status of the tree. On leaves, symptoms may include vein yellowing, banding, or the formation of light green to yellow rings.

• Cherry fruit flies

  The adult cherry fruit fly is somewhat smaller than the house fly, with a yellowish brown head and legs, and white crossbands on the abdomen. The black cherry fruit fly is slightly larger and its abdomen is entirely black.

• Cigar casebearer

  Adult is dark gray with fringed wings. The small yellowish larva of the cigar casebearer has a black head and builds and hides in a cigar-shaped shelter that it carries with it while feeding or attaches to leaves and branches of apple trees.

• Fusicoccum canker (constriction canker)

  On new shoots, small, reddish brown to dark, oval cankers centered on infected buds or leaf scars, or at the base of current season's twigs are found in early spring.

• Lady beetles

  Adults are oval and convex in shape, often brightly colored (e.g., orange-red or yellow) and usually with black spots or marks on their wing covers, sometimes with a checkerboard appearance.

• Bacterial spot

  On leaves, lesions are small, tan to brown in color, eventually becoming necrotic, and usually surrounded by a yellow halo. There are often numerous lesions on a leaf and they tend to be restricted to areas between veins, which gives them an angular appearance.

• Hawthorn dark bug

  The young adult is black with red wing markings, which disappear a few days after it metamorphoses into an adult.

• Apple rust mite

  The vermiform adult has two pairs of legs at the front of its body. Brownish yellow in color, they are invisible to the naked eye, requiring a minimum magnification of 15X to be observed.

• Pear thrips

  Adult is slender and brown, with short antennae and a swelling behind the head; the wings are long and narrow, with fringes of long hairs.

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  Pesticide Applicator Training

  This course is designed for those who are studying to take the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) Restricted Use Pesticide (RUP)Exam or for those who need a refresher on safe pesticide handling. The course material follows the National Pesticide Core Manual. Those who complete the course can receive 12 RUP credits.