Compatibility of Nuclear Polyhedrosis Viruses and Inherited Sterility for Control of Corn Earworm and Fall Armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Abstract

Inherited sterility has been proposed as a means of suppressing the populations of the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), and the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith). If nuclear polyhedrosis viruses could be used to kill larvae, thereby reducing the number of moths in the field populations, fewer moths treated with substerilizing doses of irradiation would need to be released. However, for these two methods to be compatible, the progeny of substerile moths should be no more susceptible to the virus than the progeny of the field populations. The corn earworm nuclear polyhedrosis virus (Elcar™) was bioassayed against corn earworm larvae from untreated moths and larvae from male, female, and male and female moths treated with 100 Gy of irradiation and larvae from male moths treated with 150 Gy of irradiation. The fall armyworm nuclear polyhedrosis virus was bioassayed against fall armyworm larvae from untreated moths and larvae from male moths treated with 100 to 150 Gy of irradiation. There was no significant difference between susceptibility of larvae from untreated moths and larvae from irradiated moths. Thus, the use of nuclear polyhedrosis viruses for control of larvae should be compatible with the release of substerilized moths as part of an integrated pest management approach for area-wide management of the corn earworm and fall armyworm.