The Behavior of Agricultural Insects Toward Olfactory Repellents in the Olfactometer and in Split-Arena Tests1

Abstract

Previous investigations have shown that camphor, camphene, paradichlorobenzene (PDB), acetophenone and sassafras oil are highly repellent to agricultural insects in olfactometer tests: but when these compounds were field-tested they showed only slight, if any, repellency. Split-arena tests also verified the fact that these materials possessed very little repellency to agricultural insects. It was concluded that the failure of the split-arena tests to point out the repellency was due to an unsatisfactory aerial boundary between treated and untreated areas. A similar condition probably existed in the field where foliage was treated with an olfactory repellent. Differences in temperature had little effect on the results of the tests. It is expected that gustatory materials would show more repellency toward agricultural pests than olfactory materials.