I’ve been bagging my way through the yard and came across two other trees which have zero insect damage. Wouldn’t you know it, they are also Kazakhstan apples. ARS lists them both with ~14 brix and “Leaves clean, no insects” in the wild. This time, they were from Cummins:
Sieversii Malus #11 (614000)
Sieversii Malus #13 (613978)
These are very young trees (planted spring 2013), each with only 4-5 apples after thinning. Still, it is very encouraging.
If someone is holding off on planting apples (or has given up on getting good fruit) because of insect concerns, these Kazakhstan apples could be worth a try.
No guarantee that they would work- maybe it is just small sample size. It may also be that on their own Kaz apples would get hit, but since I have so many better targets, the PC leaves them alone. I also did one coat of Surround, though it didn’t stop the PC on the other trees.