Field and Laboratory Evaluation of Female Sex Pheromone for Detection, Monitoring, and Management of Brown banded Cockroaches (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae)

Abstract

The synthetic sex pheromone of the female brown banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa (F.), was highly attractive to males in the field. Supellapyrone dispensers used in our experiments showed nearly constant pheromone release rates up to 30 d. Trapping efficacy in apartments was positively correlated with the amount of pheromone used in traps. Glue traps without pheromone captured more nymphs than did jar traps, but the latter were superior in trapping adult males using pheromone. Moreover, jar traps with pheromone caught more total cockroaches than the other 2 trap types. Two commercial baits that presumably contain attractants were compared with the female sex pheromone by using jar traps. Both attracted all life stages and both sexes of the brown banded cockroach; they increased trap catch 8-fold relative to unbaited jars. Jar traps baited with 1µg of synthetic pheromone in a slow-release formulation captured twice as many cockroaches as traps with either of the commercial baits. Combination of the food attractant and pheromone resulted in further increases in trap catch. The pheromone increased the number of adult males in all treatments by 6-28 times relative to the respective controls. Supellapyrone thus offers a powerful monitoring and pest management tool.