Developing action thresholds for codling moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) with pear ester- and codlemone-baited traps in apple orchards treated with sex pheromone mating disruption

Abstract

AbstractTraps baited with either ethyl (E,Z)-2,4-decadienoate (pear ester) or (E,E)- 8,10- dodecadien-1-ol (codlemone) (Pherocon® CM-DA™ and Megalure CM™ lures, respectively) were used to develop action thresholds for codling moth (Cydia pomonella (L.)) in apple (Malus domestica Borkh.; Rosaceae) orchards treated with sex pheromones for control of this pest. Studies were conducted in 102 orchards treated with 500–1000 ISOMATE®-C PLUS dispensers per hectare during 2000–2002. Pairs of traps were placed within two 1.0-ha plots within each orchard. Fruit injury was assessed at mid-season and prior to harvest in each plot. The numbers of female and total moths caught in pear ester-baited traps and male moths caught in codlemone-baited traps were used to develop action thresholds. Thresholds were based on the minimum cumulative number of moths per trap in ≥95% of traps in unsprayed plots with no fruit injury. Specific thresholds were established for the first insecticide spray targeting the start of egg hatch and for the first and second moth flights. The proportion of plots with mid-season fruit injury that had cumulative moth catches below the action threshold at first spray and at second moth flight was determined using the established action threshold and thresholds reduced incrementally to ≥1 moth per trap. Moth catches below the threshold at first spray were less common in plots with high levels of fruit injury (>0.3%) than in plots with low levels of fruit injury and more common with codlemone-baited traps than with pear ester-baited traps. An action threshold of ≥1 moth in a pear ester-baited trap at first spray eliminated the error in predicting fruit injury in plots at mid-season. Conversely, a high proportion of traps baited with either lure failed to predict low levels of fruit injury at harvest in unsprayed plots regardless of the cumulative moth threshold used during the second moth flight.