Development of Sterile Insect Technique for Control of the European Grapevine Moth, Lobesia botrana, in Urban Areas of Chile.

Gregory S Simmons,Ruth Henderson,Edith Alejandra Fuentes Barrios,Alvaro Rodrigo Garrido Jerez,Hernán Donoso Riffo,Melissa Cristal Salazar Sepulveda,Marcela Idalsoaga Villegas,Raul Enrique Medina Jimenez

doi:10.3390/insects12050378

Abstract

The European grapevine moth, a Palearctic pest, was first detected in the Americas in 2008. Its establishment in Chile presented production and export issues for grapes and other fruits, and a national control campaign was launched. Urban areas next to agricultural production areas were recognized as a challenge for effective control. In 2015, a SIT laboratory was established in Arica, Chile to evaluate its potential for urban control. Progress included the development and evaluation of artificial diets, a mass-rearing of 75,000 moths/week, confirmation of 150 Gy as an operational dose for inherited sterility, and releases of sterile moths in a 25 ha urban area next to fruit production areas. Season-long releases demonstrated that high overflooding ratios were achieved early in the season but decreased with a large increase in the wild moth population. Sterile moth quality was consistently high, and moths were observed living in the field up to 10 days and dispersing up to 800 m. Recommendations for further development of the SIT include conducting cage and field studies to evaluate overflooding ratios and mating competitiveness, measuring of infestation densities in release and no-release areas, and conducting trials to evaluate combining SIT with compatible integrated pest management (IPM) tactics such as fruit stripping and use of mating disruption.

Highlights

The European grapevine moth (EGVM), Lobesia botrana (Denis & Schiffermüller), is a tortricid moth that has historically been a pest in the Mediterranean regions of Europe, North Africa, and Asia
The EGVM has multiple generations a year, starting in the spring from overwintering pupae with 3–4 generations observed in Mediterranean areas and three generations documented in California, Chile, and Argentina
There were seven complete weeks of missed releases and three other occasions where only one release was made per week (Figure 7), resulting in 57 releases, a total 752,353 released sterile EGVM and a mean (SE) release rate of 813 (108) moths/ha/week (Table 4)

Summary

Introduction

The European grapevine moth (EGVM), Lobesia botrana (Denis & Schiffermüller), is a tortricid moth that has historically been a pest in the Mediterranean regions of Europe, North Africa, and Asia. It was introduced into the Americas with first detections in Chile in 2008, California, USA in 2009, and Argentina in 2010 [1,2]. Grapevine flowers and berries are favored hosts for the EGVM. The EGVM has multiple generations a year, starting in the spring from overwintering pupae with 3–4 generations observed in Mediterranean areas and three generations documented in California, Chile, and Argentina. Feeding on berries causes direct damage and leads to fungal infections that can cause extensive rot, resulting in bad flavors in wine, making heavily infested grapes unusable and leading to a total loss of clusters [2,6]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion