Abstract
Mating disruption (MD) is widely used against the European grapevine moth (EGVM), Lobesia botrana (Denis and Schiffermüller; Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), by installing passive dispensers or aerosol devices. The present work reports a new sampling and quantification methodology to obtain absolute data about field airborne pheromone concentration based on air samplings and sensitive chromatographic-spectroscopic methods. Samplings were performed in fields treated with passive dispensers or aerosol devices at different moments throughout the crop cycle to study how they act and how the disruption is triggered. Moreover, pheromone adsorption and releasing capacity of vine leaves were studied to elucidate their role in the disruption. Although both types of dispensers were effective in limiting the damage inflicted by EGVM, they performed differently and provided different airborne pheromone concentration profiles. Results also proved that leaves were able to adsorb and release part of the airborne pheromone acting as subsequent and additional pheromone sources. This fact could explain the different concentration profiles. Moreover, our results suggest that lower pheromone emission than that of the current passive dispensers still could provide an adequate performance in the field. Competitive mechanisms involved in MD using both dispensers, the dynamics of the airborne pheromone throughout the time and the importance of the canopy are discussed.
Highlights
Mating disruption (MD) is widely used as an environmentally friendly pest control method in economically important crops due to its high effectiveness, specificity and the lack of toxic residues on fruit, in contrast to the conventional methods based on the use of pesticides [1,2]
In this work we have developed a method that allowed us to successfully quantify airborne concentrations of European grapevine moth (EGVM) pheromone in vineyards treated with two commercial releasing systems: passive dispensers and aerosol devices
Field volatile collections and the following chemical analysis showed that airborne pheromone concentrations throughout the season varied depending on the MD treatment deployed (Figure 1)
Summary
Mating disruption (MD) is widely used as an environmentally friendly pest control method in economically important crops due to its high effectiveness, specificity and the lack of toxic residues on fruit, in contrast to the conventional methods based on the use of pesticides [1,2]. The higher cost of mating disruption compared with the traditional control in some crops is sometimes detrimental for its implementation [3,4,5,6] For this reason, the studies focused on the optimization of the pheromone used, quantity and releasing mode are essential to reduce the implementation costs of this technique and make it more available to growers. The final cost of mating disruption depends on pheromone production costs [7,8], which are related to: (1) chemical synthesis and economies of scale, (2) the quantity of pheromone needed and (3) the pheromone emission rate and the number of dispensers required per hectare All these parameters are related to the biology of the target pest and the mechanisms that trigger the mating disruption.
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