I took a specimen of the troubled apple leaves to the nursery for a diagnosis. The pink lady was hit the hardest with minimal damage to the granny smith and almost none on the cherry trees.
The diagnosis: a combination of earwig damage and fungus.
The treatment: bait for the earwigs and see if the destruction stops. If the fungus seems to get worse treat for that in a week or 2 also.
Sluggo Plus it is. I like the fact that this is a bait spread around the base of the tree and not something that needs to sprayed on the foliage. Seems more controlled that way to me.
The bait is light blue pellets which the earwigs will unsuspectingly eat and will soon kill them. As shown the bait kills slugs, earwigs, and snails.
The Sluggo Plus was sprinkled on the top of the soil of the affected trees.
It has been 1 week+ since the bait was put out. There are dozens of new leaves on each of the trees and all are untouched by the earwigs/fungus. Success.