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Continued from Page 6<br />
Make timely hull split sprays, keeping in mind that nuts at the top of trees typically split<br />
before those at eye level (photo by V. Boyd.)<br />
Mummies not only provide an overwintering site for larvae, they also offer egg-laying<br />
sites for the first NOW moth flight in the spring (photo by V. Boyd.)<br />
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within the orchard.<br />
If there are more than two mummies<br />
per tree, plan to mechanically shake<br />
or have a crew hand-poll the trees to<br />
remove them before bud swell. In the<br />
central to southern parts of the Central<br />
Valley, David Haviland, UCCE farm<br />
advisor in Kern County, recommends<br />
striving for fewer than one per tree.<br />
But the increased cost and reduced<br />
availability of polling crews has made<br />
winter sanitation more challenging,<br />
he said. Afterward, the orchard floor<br />
should be disked or flail mowed by<br />
March 1 to destroy mummies on the<br />
ground.<br />
The optimum time for winter sanitation<br />
is after a heavy dew, fog or rain<br />
when the mummy nuts have absorbed<br />
some moisture. This makes them heavier<br />
and easier to shake and remove. The<br />
moisture also helps rot mummies in the<br />
trees as well as aids larval mortality on<br />
the orchard floor.<br />
Unfortunately, Haviland said, the<br />
southern San Joaquin Valley never<br />
received heavy rains last winter.<br />
“The ground remained bone dry all<br />
winter long,” he said. “Even if a mummy<br />
is below ground and it doesn’t get wet,<br />
a larva can emerge if it’s in the top few<br />
inches. Shallow-buried mummies never<br />
got wet.”<br />
Rijal said sometimes growers and<br />
PCAs think that instead of shaking they<br />
can apply an insecticide to the mummies<br />
due to understandable reason, such<br />
as dry winters and labor shortages.<br />
Regardless, he said, “We cannot beat<br />
the navel orangeworm if we only rely on<br />
insecticides, and we need to find ways<br />
to do the winter sanitation effectively.<br />
In fact, for winter sanitation, any time<br />
after the harvest through early February<br />
works. For example, we had some rain<br />
last week, and mummy sanitation can<br />
be done now if you can.”<br />
Mating Disruption<br />
In response to NOW control challenges,<br />
almond, pistachio and walnut<br />
growers representing more than 400,000<br />
acres combined have successfully incorporated<br />
in-season mating disruption<br />
into their IPM programs, Haviland said.<br />
Among adoptees is Niederholzer,<br />
8 West Coast Nut <strong>Dec</strong>ember 2021
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