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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Commodity Protection and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #420018
Research Project: Improved Systems-based Approaches that Maintain Commodity Quality and Control of Arthropod Pests Important to U.S. Agricultural Production, Trade and Quarantine

Location: Commodity Protection and Quality Research

Title: Effect of pheromone blend on attraction and trap suppression of males of the navel orangeworm (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) using mating disruption meso-dispensers

Author
item Burks, Charles - Chuck
item HIGBEE, BRADLEY - Trece, Inc

Submitted to: Insects
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/9/2024
Publication Date: 11/12/2024
Citation: Burks, C.S., Higbee, B.S. 2024. Effect of pheromone blend on attraction and trap suppression of males of the navel orangeworm (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) using mating disruption meso-dispensers. Insects. 15(11):884. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15110884.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15110884

Interpretive Summary: The navel orangeworm is an important pest of high-value crops including almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. Monitoring and mating disruption are important tools for control of this moth, and improved understanding of its response to pheromone composition and concentration has the potential to improve monitoring and mating disruption. Experiments with high release rate passive diffusion pheromone dispensers (meso-dispensers) revealed that capture of males in pheromone traps was suppressed more successfully at an intermediate rate of dispensers per acre when a second pheromone component was included. Traps baited with part or all of the single-compound meso-dispensers as bait were minimally attractive in the absence of mating disruption, thereby confirming earlier research on the mechanism of mating disruption for navel orangeworm. Traps baited with the two-component meso-dispensers captured similar numbers of navel orangeworm in either the presence or absence of mating disruption, indicating that this dispenser could also be used to improve monitoring. This study provides scientists and extension personnel with further insight into the mechanism of the current widely-used mating disruption products for navel orangeworm, and indicates that the two-component meso-dispensers could provide improvements in monitoring for navel orangeworm compared to the presently-used products.

Technical Abstract: Mating disruption is used to manage Amyelois transitella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). Current mating disruption uses a single compound, but at least one other is necessary for source contact in laboratory assays. We conducted experiments to examine disruption of sexual communication and attraction of males to these meso-dispensers with either one or both compounds. Trap suppression experiments compared males captured in pheromone traps in orchard blocks treated at a low, medium, or high number of dispensers per ha and a trapping study used the micro-dispensers as attractants in sticky traps compared the relative their attractiveness. The 2-component meso-dispensers suppressed male capture in pheromone traps more effectively than the 1-component meso-dispensers at the intermediate density. The trapping study found that both dispensers captured fewer males than a monitoring lure in the absence of mating disruption, but more males in the presence of mating disruption. These data provide additional support for the a hybrid mechanism of mating disruption for this species and indicate that the use of the more attractive 2-component dispensers could make mating disruption more effective at the lowest dispenser density currently used. A lure base on the 2-component meso-dispenser could provide equally effective monitoring in the presence of mating disruption.