The effectiveness of tomato leaf miner control by disorientation in greenhouses

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of the effectiveness of the biological control method of the tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta by the disorientation method using synthetic sexual pheromones of the pest in greenhouses with tomato grown. The effectiveness of two preparative forms of lures: rubber rings and rubber stoppers which contain the similar compositions of the synthetic sex pheromone of the tomato leaf miner – acetate E3, Z8, Z11-tetradecatriene-1-ola, at a dosage of 15 mg/ lure, was evaluated. It was managed to disrupt the orientation of males in an enclosed space and reduce the influence of the natural pheromone of females on their attraction by using synthetic sexual pheromones of Tuta absoluta. During the study, the effectiveness of the method ranged from 50 to 95%. In greenhouses, the disorientation method allowed to reduce the number of tomato fruits damaged by tomato leaf miner caterpillars by up to 12%, as well as to improve the quality of the crop by up to 30%.