Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wapato, Washington » Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #302961
Title: Are apple and hawthorn fruit volatiles more attractive than ammonium carbonate to Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Washington state?

Author
item Yee, Wee
item NASH, MERALEE - Washington State University Extension Service
item GOUGHNOUR, ROBERT - Washington State University Extension Service
item Cha, Dong
item LINN, JR, CHARLES - Cornell University
item FEDER, JEFFERY - University Of Notre Dame

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2014
Publication Date: 8/1/2014
Citation: Yee, W.L., Nash, M.J., Goughnour, R.B., Cha, D.H., Linn, Jr, C.E., Feder, J.L. 2014. Are apple and hawthorn fruit volatiles more attractive than ammonium carbonate to Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Washington state? Environmental Entomology. 43(4):957-968.

Interpretive Summary: The apple maggot fly is a major quarantine pest of apple in the northwestern U.S. Identification of the most attractive odors to use with traps for fly detection can help prevent its spread into commercial apple-growing areas. Personnel at the USDA-ARS Yakima Agricultural Research Laboratory in Wapato, WA, Washington State University in Puyallup and Vancouver, Cornell University in Geneva, NY, and the University of Notre Dame in IN compared the numbers of flies captured on traps baited with ammonium carbonate and various fruit volatile lures in Washington state. In all five years of the study, more flies were captured on ammonium carbonate than fruit volatile traps in both apple and hawthorn trees. Results indicate that traps baited with ammonium carbonate represent the best approach to monitoring apple maggot flies in Washington state.

Technical Abstract: The apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), is an introduced, quarantine pest of apple (Malus domestica Borkhausen) in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. In the eastern U.S. where the fly is native, fruit volatiles have been reported to be more attractive than ammonia compounds to R. pomonella. However, the opposite may be true in the western U.S. Here, we determined whether newly identified western apple and western hawthorn fruit volatiles are more attractive than ammonium carbonate (AC) to R. pomonella in apple, black hawthorn, and ornamental hawthorn trees in western Washington state. In all three host trees, sticky red sphere or yellow panel traps baited with AC generally caught more flies than traps baited with lures containing the four newly developed fruit blends (modified eastern apple, western apple, western ornamental hawthorn, and western black hawthorn) or two older blends (eastern apple and eastern downy hawthorn). Fruit volatiles also displayed more variation among trapping studies conducted at different sites, in different host trees, and across years than AC. The results imply that traps baited with AC represent the best approach to monitoring R. pomonella in Washington state.