March 13, 2023
Sally Nelson, Bill Hutchison’s master’s student, has been researching hail-netting as an insect exclusion tactic in apple orchards in Minnesota for her master’s project. Hutchison and Nelson have been monitoring the damage of three orchard pests for over two years. “Across both years and with all traps averaged, the netting reduced the number of apple maggots caught by 96%, codling moths by 94%, and redbanded leafrollers by 56%, Nelson reported.” With more data analysis underway, hail netting may be a grower’s best bet in defense against apple maggots and codling moths. Read the full article, Double Duty Nets, on pages 14-17. If you want to learn more, Nelson will be publishing a journal article with all the analyzed data in the future.
