Fruit Pest and Beneficial Search
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Use this search to identify diseases, insect and mite pests and beneficials, a critical step in any integrated pest management (IPM) plan. This search covers tree fruit and grape pests and is based on the publications “Tree Fruit Field Guide to Insect, Mite, and Disease Pests and Natural Enemies of Eastern North America” and “A Pocket Guide for Grape IPM Scouting in the North Central and Eastern United States.”
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European apple sawfly
Insect
The adult looks similar to a small, orange-brown wasp with the ventral side and legs orange in color. It has transparent wings with many veins. The egg, oval and translucent, is inserted into the receptacle of the flower.
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European Chafer
Insect
In an average year in southern Michigan, adult flight begins in mid to late June and continues for 2 to 3 weeks. European chafer is a nondescript light brown beetle, 0.5 inch long (smaller than June beetles and larger than Japanese beetles) and robust. They do not feed as adults. Beetles emerge at dusk each evening and tend to congregate in trees for several hours.
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European corn borer
Insect
Adult is a pale yellowish brown moth with irregular darker bands running in wavy lines across wings male is distinctly darker than the female.
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European earwig
Insect
The European earwig is dark brown with an elongated body, equipped with pincer-like forceps at the rear of the abdomen. The short elytra do not entirely cover the abdomen.
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European fruit lecanium (Brown apricot scale)
Insect
The adult female scale is nearly hemispherical and shiny brown, with several ridges along the back. Nymphs are light colored.
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European fruit scale
Insect
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.
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European red mite
Insect
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.
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Eutypa dieback
Disease
Eutypa dieback is a progressive disease of the woody tissues of the grapevine. It is mainly found in older vineyards. Symptoms may not show for several years after infection. Initial symptoms usually appear on one arm and are best observed in mid- to late spring when shoots are 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm) long. Leaves are cupped, yellowish and smaller than normal. Shoots are stunted and have fewer and smaller fruit clusters. Severely infected arms or vines develop fewer shoots each year and eventually die. Below the bark, a canker can usually be found surrounding an old pruning wound. The fungus releases spores from the canker once the bark has weathered off. Most spores are released during late winter and early spring when temperatures are above 32ºF (0ºC) and more than 1/25 inch (1 mm) rainfall or snowmelt occurs. The fungus infects vines primarily through pruning wounds, which remain susceptible for a month or more.
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Eyespotted bud moth
Insect
Adult forewings are bluish gray with a central cream-colored band and black spots. The chocolate brown larva has a black head and thoracic shield.
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Fabraea leaf spot
Disease
Lesions on leaves and petioles start as small, circular purple to black pinpoint spots.
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Fairy Ring
Disease
Fairy rings tend to grow in circle shaped patterns through the organic matter in the soil, mat, and thatch, first appearing as dark green circular rings or arcs in the turf.
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Fall webworm
Insect
Adult is a white moth with dark spots on the wings, which may be less distinct in northern specimens. The pale yellow larva has a dark head and dark tubercles with clumps of hairs.
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Fanleaf degeneration
Disease
Fanleaf degeneration affects vinifera cultivars. It is characterized by fan-shaped leaves with toothed margins, proliferation of shoots, short internodes and zigzag growth. Foliar symptoms appear early in spring and persist through the growing season. Sometimes leaves show a bright yellow mosaic or yellow vein banding with little or no malformation. Fruit clusters are small with poor fruit set, irregular ripening and shot berries. The causal virus is spread by dagger nematodes and planting material. The virus is not transmitted through seeds and has no natural weed hosts. Roots from infected vines can be a source of infection even after the mother plant has been removed.
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Field Bindweed
Weeds
Field bindweed is a common weed in subdivisions that were converted from agricultural land. Bindweed has an aggressive rhizomatous root system with trailing stems that spread quickly and can overtake mulched beds, bushes and fence rows. It is common to see bindweed smothering junipers and other bushes. The white and pink flowers are distinctly from the morningglory family. The veins are conspicuous on the arrowhead shaped leaves (sagitate or hastate).
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Field Horsetail
Weeds
Field horsetail is most often a weed of landscape beds and low-lying areas. Horsetail can survive in turf, but often will not persist with routine mowing.
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Fire blight
Disease
Blossom blight occurs in the spring. Infected blossoms first exhibit a water soaking, followed by wilting and their eventually turning brown on apple and nearly black on pear. Individual flowers or the entire cluster may be affected.
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Flatheaded appletree borer
Insect
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.
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Flavescence dorée
Disease
Flavescence dorée affects only vinifera grapes and interspecific hybrids. Labrusca cultivars are resistant. Symptoms usually appear the year after infection and either get progressively worse until the vine dies or disappear in an apparent recovery. Symptoms include delayed or no bud break and progressively shortened internodes. In summer, vines take on a weeping posture, and shoots become rubbery and fail to lignify. Characteristic black pustules may be seen in longitudinal rows near the bases of shoots. The leaves have golden yellow or reddish patches and curl downward. Growing points become necrotic, and flower and fruit clusters shrivel up and fall. The pathogen overwinters in infected canes and is spread by a leafhopper. Symptoms may resemble those of certain virus diseases or potato leafhopper damage.
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Flyspeck
Disease
Sooty blotch and flyspeck are found together on the same fruit and affect only the epidermal layer of the fruit. Flyspeck colonies appear as distinct groupings of shiny, black fungal bodies on the surface of the fruit.
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Foliar Anthracnose
Disease
Anthracnose can occur as both a foliar infecting and crown infecting disease.
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Forbes scale
Insect
Round or elongate gray scale with a raised reddish area in the center, which distinguishes it from the San Jose scale.
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Forest tent caterpillar
Insect
Adults are reddish brown with two brown, transverse-parallel bands. Masses of shiny black eggs are laid in a ring around twigs. Larvae have long silky hairs on their body and a row of elongated spots along the back.
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Fruit flies
Insect
Fruit flies lay eggs near the surface of fermenting berries. Eggs take only 30 hours to hatch, and larvae develop in fermenting material. They feed near the surface, mostly on yeast, for 5 to 6 days and go to drier places to pupate.
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Fruittree leafroller
Insect
The adult is red-brown with mottling. The translucent green caterpillar has a reddish to dark brown head and an amber to pale green thoracic shield edged with brown.
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Fusicoccum canker (constriction canker)
Disease
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.
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Gallmakers on leaves
Insect
Many galls of various shapes occur on grapevines as a result of attack by small flies (gall midges). Galls can occur on leaves, tendrils and blossom buds. Numerous species of gall midges attack grape.
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Germander Speedwell
Weeds
Speedwell is often used as an ornamental ground cover and is commonly available at retail greenhouses. Germander speedwell is a perennial that has simple, opposite narrow leaves near the base that are slightly elongated.
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Giant Foxtail
Weeds
Giant foxtail is a larger plant than green or yellow foxtail. Giant foxtail will not tolerate mowing and is rarely found in mowed turf areas. It is most commonly a weed of cultivated crops.
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Glassy-winged mirid bug
Beneficial
The adult is similar to the tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris), but with a more elongated head and has translucent wings crossed with two black lines at an angle; also, without the cream-colored scutellum.
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Goosegrass
Weeds
Goosegrass is a warm season summer annual grassy weed that predominates in exposed, trafficked conditions.
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Grape berry moth
Insect
Grape berry moth spends the winter as a pupa in leaf litter in and around vineyards. First generation adults emerge from the pupae before bloom.
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Grape cane gallmaker
Insect
The adult is a dark brown snout beetle about 1/8 inch (4 mm) long that looks like the grape cane girdler. The legless grub is white with a brown head and slightly larger when full grown.
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Grape cane girdler
Insect
The grape cane girdler is a black snout beetle. In late spring, the female makes holes encircling the cane and lays her eggs in the holes.
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Grape erineum mite
Insect
This very small mite cannot be seen without magnification. It overwinters under the bark of 1-year-old canes.
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Grape flea beetle
Insect
The grape flea beetle (or steely beetle) is a shiny, metallic dark blue. It may jump when disturbed. Larvae are yellow-brown with a dark head and feed on clusters and leaf surfaces.
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Grape leafhopper
Insect
All leafhopper species feed on the undersides of leaves, puncturing cells and sucking out the contents. In general, juice grape (labrusca) varieties are much more tolerant of leafhoppers than hybrid or vinifera varieties.
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Grape mealybug
Insect
Adults are soft, oval, flat, distinctly segmented and covered with a waxy layer that extends into spines along the body margin and the posterior end. The pinkish body is visible through the powdery wax.
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Grape phylloxera
Insect
Phylloxera are small, yellow, aphidlike insects that live on vine roots and leaves. The root form stunts growth of susceptible vines and can kill them.
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Grape root borer
Insect
Adult grape root borers are clearwing moths with a dark brown body and yellow-orange bands on the abdomen. Moths are active during the day and are seen on vines in July.
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Grape rootworm
Insect
This beetle is 6 mm long and light brown with yellow hairs. It feeds on grape foliage as an adult, making a chainlike damage pattern.
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Grapevine decline or Esca
Disease
Grapevine decline affects both young and old vines. Young vines often show stunted growth, small trunk size and reduced foliage. On older vines, yellowish or reddish patches may appear between leaf veins in mid- to late season, eventually leading to marginal and interveinal burning. Berries may show poor maturation and purplish gray flecks “measles.” The entire vine or part of it may die suddenly, usually during hot periods. Sometimes shelflike mushrooms can be found on the trunk. Causal fungi can infect vines through roots and pruning wounds and become systemic in the plant. Infected vines are often symptomless, so the disease can easily spread via planting material.
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Gray Leaf Spot
Disease
Gray leaf spot is considered a problem on primarily perennial ryegrass and St. Augustinegrass. The disease first appears as tiny brown spots that enlarge and become oval or elongated.
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Gray mold
Disease
Lesions usually start at the calyx or stem end of the fruit or at wound sites as small water-soaked areas. As lesions age, they enlarge, turning from grayish-brown to light brown, and eventually to a darker brown.
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Gray Snow Mold
Disease
This disease is important in northern regions of the United States, where snow cover remains on the ground for extended periods, usually 3 months or more.
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Green Apple Aphid
Insect
Green apple aphid nymphs and adults prefer to feed on the underside of leaves on growing shoot tips and stems.
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Green Foxtail
Weeds
Green foxtail is a clumping annual grass that commonly invades Michigan turfs. Young plants can be difficult to distinguish from other grasses like crabgrass. Green foxtail produces a characteristic 'foxtail'-like seedhead.
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Green June beetle
Insect
The adult is velvet green dorsally with yellow-orange margins on the elytra. Ventrally it is a shiny metallic green mixed with orangish yellow. The larva is a large, C-shaped grub that lives in the soil and is not found in the trees.
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Green peach aphid
Insect
These smooth-looking, pear-shaped insects have long antennae and a pair of cornicles extending from the posterior end of the body.
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Green pug
Insect
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.
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Green ring mottle virus
Disease
The virus produces symptoms on sour cherry, primarily the variety Montmorency. Apricot, peach, and sweet cherry are symptomless hosts. Yellow mottling with irregularly shaped green islands or rings appear on the leaves of infected trees.
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Green stink bug
Insect
Stink bug adults have a broad, flattened, shield-shaped body and a narrow head. The green stink bug is uniformly grass-green.
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Ground Ivy
Weeds
Ground ivy, also known as creeping Charlie, is an aggressive perennial that is ideally suited to many landscape situations. It prefers moist, well-fertilized, shades sites maintained at a low mowing height.
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Gypsy moth
Insect
The adult male is brownish and marked with blackish zigzag lines. The adult female is whitish with brown transverse zigzag stripes and does not fly. The masses of oval and yellow eggs are laid on the trunk of trees and covered with hair left by the female.
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Hawthorn dark bug
Insect
The young adult is black with red wing markings, which disappear a few days after it metamorphoses into an adult.
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Heal All
Weeds
Heal All is a low growing, spreading, perennial of the mint family. It has very distinctive 'puckered' leaves with an opposite arrangement on square stems.
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Henbit
Weeds
Henbit is a winter annual that typically invades new seedings and thin turf (prefers nutrient rich soil). As with most winter annual weeds, they are most noticeable in the year of establishment. As turf density increases after renovation, henbit will not persist after the following spring.
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Hornworm
Insect
Hornworms (sphingid larvae) are found feeding on leaves in vineyards. Larvae may be brown or green with spots on the sides of the body and a distinctive “horn” on the rear end.
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Hover flies
Beneficial
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.
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Humped green fruitworm
Insect
Adult's forewings are gray and marked with light and dark areas for 2/3 of their length the outer 1/3 is a lighter gray.
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Ichneumonid parasitic wasps
Beneficial
They have a slender body; very distinct head, thorax and abdomen; two pairs of membranous wings and long, segmented antennae. The female’s needle-like ovipositor (at the tip of the abdomen) is as long as or longer than its body.
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Japanese beetle
Insect
Japanese beetles can be present from June through September. Japanese beetle adults are metallic green or greenish bronze with reddish wing covers and several white spots near the abdomen tip and along the sides. Larvae are larger C-shaped grubs that live in the soil.
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Lacewings
Beneficial
The adult is green (Chrysopidae), or light brown (Hemerobiidae) with large translucent membranous wings that are held roof-like over the body. Brown lacewings are typically half the size of green lacewings.
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Lady beetles
Beneficial
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.
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Large Crabgrass
Weeds
Large crabgrass is a common invader of manicured turf. Large crabgrass has hairs on all surfaces. It can be identified by its light green appearance and swollen, zig-zag nodes.
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Leaf blotch
Disease
Leaf blotch can affect many types of grapes but is most often found on leaves of American rootstock cultivars. Leaf lesions appear after mid-season. Lesion size ranges from 1/25 inch to 2 inches (1 to 50 mm). Small lesions have dark margins, and large lesions have light-colored, zonate rings. Stalked fruiting structures are produced within 3 to 4 days of the appearance of the lesion, usually on the lower leaf surface. The fungus may also sporulate on overripe berries. The fungus overwinters in infected plant debris.
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Leaf Spot
Disease
Leaf spot is a warm-weather disease, but the pathogen overwinters as dormant mycelium in infected plants and dead grass debris.
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Leaf weevils
Insect
Leaf weevils are green or brown curculios with a metallic appearance. Their antennae are borne on the snout.
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Leafhoppers, about
Insect
Potato leafhopper (PLH) can be differentiated from white apple leafhopper by color and by observing movement and feeding habits.
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Leafroll
Disease
Symptoms are most obvious in fall. Infected vines are slightly smaller than healthy vines. Leaves become yellow or reddish purple as the season progresses; the main veins remain green. By late summer, the leaves start rolling downward, beginning at the base of the shoot. At harvest, fruit clusters are small, poorly colored and low in sugar. The disease does not kill the vine but will remain chronic. Not all infected vines show symptoms. The leafroll virus spreads primarily via infected nursery stock and the grape mealybug. Within-field spread by mealybug is very slow.
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Lesser appleworm
Insect
The adult is a small gray moth with distinct small orange bands or patches on the wings; some blue is also evident in newly emerged specimens.
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Lesser peachtree borer
Insect
Adult is a clear-winged, metallic-blue moth that has two or more yellow bands across the abdomen, giving it a wasp-like appearance.
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Masked Chafer
Insect
The adults are a light brown beetle 3/8 to 1/2 inch in length and have a black band on the front of the head (the mask). They have a single generation per year and adult flight is in June and July. Eggs are laid and the grubs hatch and begin to feed in August and September. Damage is usually observed in the fall.
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May or June Beetle
Insect
The adults are usually dark brown but can be black, tan or a dark chestnut color. They vary in length from 0.5 to 1.0 inch long, and tend to be rounded and robust.The term May or June beetles refers to some 10 different species of beetles in the genus Phyllophaga, that are known to injure turfgrass.
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Melting Out
Disease
Symptoms of melting-out resemble leaf spot symptoms and these two diseases are often grouped together. Melting out however is a cool-weather disease where leaf spot is a warm-weather disease.
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Microdochium Patch
Disease
This is the most important disease in areas with extended periods of cool wet weather. Symptoms appear as reddish brown to copper-colored spots in the turf.
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Mineola moth (Destructive pruneworm)
Insect
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.
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Minute pirate bug
Beneficial
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.
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Moldy core and core rot
Disease
Moldy core is associated with several different fungi. Infection is initiated at the calyx end and the fungi proceed to grow inward into the carpel tissue or locules and cause a core rot.
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Mole
Insect
Moles become active when temperature rises in the spring and can cause damage until late fall. Their primary food source are earthworms. They will feed on grubs if they are present, but an insecticide application to remove grubs may not cause them to leave.
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Mouseear Chickweed
Weeds
Mouseear chickweed is a low-growing perennial that can tolerate extremely low mowing heights (even at greens height). It can tolerate a wide variety of soil and growing conditions. The leaves of mouseear chickweed are typically very thick, dark green and covered with hairs.
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Mucor Rot
Disease
Infected tissue appears light brown, soft, and watery. The infection usually develops at wound sites, at the calyx end, or at the stem end of the fruit.
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Mullein plant bug
Beneficial
Adult is grayish green with black spots on the legs. The nymph resembles an apple aphid or a white apple leafhopper and is solitary, very mobile and lacks cornicles.
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Multicolored Asian lady beetle
Beneficial, Insect
The multicolored Asian ladybeetle, an introduced species, feeds on pests during summer. They may be many colors with several or no spots and can be distinguished from other ladybugs by the black M or W (depending on the viewing direction) between the head and abdomen (see photo).
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Mycosphaerella leaf spot
Disease
Lesions are primarily circular, 3–5 mm in diameter, and have a grayish white interior, with a distinct purple margin; small, black pycnidia develop in the interior of older lesions. The fungus occasionally attacks the fruit, producing small, dark lesions.
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Necrotic leaf blotch
Disease
Medium to large, irregular necrotic lesions occur on the foliage of mature leaves during mid- to late summer. The remaining green tissue generally turns yellow shortly after the appearance of symptoms.
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Necrotic Ring Spot
Disease
The pathogen attacks root systems in the spring and fall, and in the summer, infected plants begin to wilt in patches.
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Nectria canker
Disease
Cankers are often associated with nodes, often appearing as elliptical sunken areas. Sometimes callus production stops fungal invasion and cankers die by season's end.
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Nectria twig blight
Disease
Typically, small cankers can be found girdling the base of cluster buds that bore fruit the previous year. This leads to the wilting and dying of leaves and twigs of current season's growth.
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Nematodes
Disease
Plant-parasitic nematodes are microscopic roundworms that live in soil and feed on plant roots. Aboveground symptoms are poor growth, low yields and an “off” color. The symptoms may resemble those of nutrient deficiencies or virus diseases. Belowground symptoms include poor root development, root browning, root swelling and stunting or death of feeder roots. In new vineyards, nematodes may cause poor establishment and weak growth of young vines. Nematodes seldom kill vines but contribute to a steady decline in vigor. Dagger nematodes can also transmit certain viruses. Nematodes spread with soil and plant roots. Once established in a vineyard, nematode infestations tend to be permanent.
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Nimblewill
Weeds
Nimblewill is a warm-season turfgrass that will infest cool-season turf. It has excellent winter hardiness which allows it to establish and compete.
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Obliquebanded leafroller
Insect
Adult wings are beige, tinged with red. Forewings are crossed with oblique brown bands. The female is larger than the male. The green eggs are laid in masses on the upper surface of leaves.
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Orange Hawkweed
Weeds
Orange hawkweed is a creeping perennial of low maintenance turf, roadsides and native areas. It can be an indicator of low soil fertility or slightly acidic soils. Hawkweed spreads by stolons and rhizomes creating colonies that form patches.
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Orchardgrass
Weeds
Orchardgrass is a competitive perennial grassy weed of cool-season turf. It has a very well developed fibrous root system and can be difficult to remove once established.
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Oriental fruit moth
Insect
The adult is a small moth with dark gray mottled wings that lighten somewhat at the outer edges. The larva is dirty white to pinkish with a reddish brown head and an anal comb.
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Oystershell scale
Insect
The adult female remains immobile under a small brown scale in the shape of an oyster shell attached to the bark of branches. The white and oval eggs are laid inside the scale and crawlers emerge in the spring during the petal fall stage of apple.
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Pale apple leafroller
Insect
The adult is elongated and dull gray. The larva is creamy white with an amber head, which turns black in the penultimate instar.
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Peach bark beetle
Insect
Adult's body is brown with many punctures, from which arise yellowish hairs. The larva is a small, legless grub.
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Peach leaf curl
Disease
The pathogen infects young undeveloped tissue of leaves and fruit. Infection is most severe when cool conditions prevent rapid development of the foliage. Infected leaves curl and blister, leaving them severely deformed.