Location: Commodity Protection and Quality Research
Project Number: 2034-43000-043-047-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2022
End Date: Jun 30, 2023
Objective:
Objectives include:
a. Compare performance of a newly developed navel orangeworm strain with an existing strain using laboratory and small plot field experiments.
b. Perform experiments on 160-acre plots with commercial collaborators to examine impact of mass-released navel orangeworm from the USDA-APHIS Phoenix Mass Release Facility on captures of wild moths and damage in almonds.
c. Perform experiments on 640-acre plots with commercial collaborators to examine the impact of landscape features on movement of mass-released navel orangeworm from the USDA-APHIS Phoenix Mass Release Facility.
Approach:
Performance of a new strain. Moths will be tested using laboratory and small plot field experiments. Males of the old and the new strain will be evaluated using flight cylinders that consist of a plastic tube (11 in height x 6 in diameter) with the interior coated with fluon (to prevent walking up the sides). The number of males leaving the cylinder 1, 2, and 3 days after the start of the test will be compared. Each replicate will consist of 10 adults in the cylinder, 10 replicates will be used on each date, and the experiment will be repeated on three or more dates.
Experiments on 160-acre almond plots. Three pairs of 160-acre almond blocks (no mating disruption) will be used to evaluate the influence of sterile ‘Phoenix’ strain moths on wild NOW populations and crop damage. The sites will be paired together (3 sets of 2 blocks each) and within each pair one block each randomly assigned as the ‘Control’ (no sterile moth release) and ‘SIT’ (sterile moth release) blocks. Sterile moths from the Phoenix facility will then be released weekly over the ‘SIT’ blocks using the modified APHIS airplane June 15 - Oct. 1. Each release will consist of approximately 1,000,000 sterile NOW (50:50 M:F) released evenly over the three ‘SIT’ blocks (i.e. approximately 330,000 moths per block per week). Adult NOW populations will be monitored weekly and crop infestation documented at harvest. Each block will contain 5 paired wing-traps (10 traps total), one with a pheromone lure and the other with ovipositional bait. Crop damage will be assessed at harvest. Once trees are shaken and nuts windrowed, sets of 250 nuts will be collected from 5 sample points across each experimental block (3 pairs x 2 treatments = 6 blocks total). Collected nuts will be evaluated in the laboratory for NOW infestation. Experiments on 640-acre pistachio plots each week June 15 – Oct. 1, aerial release using the modified APHIS airplane will take place over the same 160-acre section of the orchard in the northeast corner of each block. The total amount of moths released each week will be approximately 330,000 (50:50 M:F). A grid of paired wing-traps (1 trap per 40 acres), one with pheromone and the other with ovipositional bait, will be used to measure NOW populations across the entire 640-acre block following the weekly release event. Experimental orchards were selected to be isolated with no adjacent tree nuts in order to better understand NOW propensity to disperse beyond the borders of tree nut orchards.
