Abstract
Mating disruption techniques are used in pest control for many species of insects, yet little is known regarding the environmental persistence of these pheromones following their application and if persistence is affected by climatic conditions. We first studied the persistent effect of ground applications of Luretape® GM in Lymantria dispar (L) mating disruption in VA, USA in 2006. The removal of Luretape® GM indicated that the strong persistent effect of disparlure in the environment reported by previous studies is produced by residual pheromone in the dispensers as opposed to environmental contamination. In 2010 and 2011, we evaluated the efficacy of two formulations, Disrupt® II and SPLAT GMTM, in VA and WI, USA, which presented different climatic conditions. In plots treated in WI and VA, male moth catches in pheromone-baited traps were reduced in the year of treatment and one year after the pheromone applications relative to untreated controls. However, similar first- and second-year effects of pheromone treatments in VA and WI suggest that the release rate over one and two years was the same across markedly different climates. Future applications that use liquid or biodegradable formulations of synthetic pheromones could reduce the amount of persistence in the environment.
Highlights
Techniques that disrupt successful mating are used as a management tactic against a number of insect pests, especially against Lepidoptera [1±4]
For mating disruption to be successful as an insect management tactic, synthetic pheromone needs to be present in the air in sufficient quantities over the course of the mating period [7±9]
Luretape® GM had been removed for one day were still 100 times less likely to be mated than females from untreated control plots
Summary
Techniques that disrupt successful mating are used as a management tactic against a number of insect pests, especially against Lepidoptera [1±4]. The method of mating disruption is based upon the introduction of synthetic pheromone into the environment at levels that chemically interfere with mate-finding ability. For mating disruption to be successful as an insect management tactic, synthetic pheromone needs to be present in the air in sufficient quantities over the course of the mating period [7±9]. Previous studies have highlighted that synthetic pheromones, when deployed as part of insect pest management programs, could persist in the environment beyond the year of application, SURGXFLQJDμJKRVWHIIHFW¶[10±12]. It has been shown that pheromone can be adsorbed onto foliage under field conditions [13].
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