A 1-acre apple planting, formerly an isolated part of a commercial orchard, was maintained normally except for the omission of insecticidal and acaricidal treatments from 1960 through 1969. European red mites, Panonychus ulmi (Koch), were not troublesome but codling moth, Laspeyresia pomonella (L.); plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst): red-banded leaf roller, Argyrolaenia velutinana (Walker); and apple maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), rendered the crop commercially worthless after the 1st year. A little-known pest, the lesser appleworm, Grapholitha prunivora (Walsh), caused severe fruit injury during the last 2 years. The apple maggot was consistently the most damaging pest and infested more than 75% of the fruits each year after the 2nd noninsecticidal season.
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Glass et al. (1971) studied this question.