Small cages with insect couples provide a simple method for a preliminary assessment of mating disruption.
Mating disruption by sex pheromones is a sustainable, effective and widely used pest management scheme. A drawback of this technique is its challenging assessment of effectiveness in the field (e.g., spatial scale, pest density). The aim of this work was to facilitate the evaluation of field-deployed pheromone dispensers. We tested the suitability of small insect field cages for a pre-evaluation of the impact of sex pheromones on mating using the grape moths Eupoecilia ambiguella and Lobesia botrana, two major pests in vineyards. Cages consisted of a cubic metal frame of 35 cm sides, which was covered with a mosquito net of 1500 μm mesh size. Cages were installed in the centre of pheromone-treated and untreated vineyards. In several trials, 1 to 20 couples of grape moths per cage were released for one to three nights. The proportion of mated females was between 15 to 70% lower in pheromone-treated compared to untreated vineyards. Overall, the exposure of eight couples for one night was adequate for comparing different control schemes. Small cages may therefore provide a fast and cheap method to compare the effectiveness of pheromone dispensers under standardised semi-field conditions and may help predict the value of setting-up large-scale field trials.
Station de recherche Agroscope Changins, Wädenswil ACW, CP 1012, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland.
Françoise
F
Briand
Patrick M
PM
Guerin
Pierre-Joseph
PJ
Charmillot
Patrik
P
Kehrli
D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D007313:Insecta; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000379:methods; D012724:Sex Attractants / Q000737:chemistry*; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D013557:Switzerland
D012724:Sex Attractants