Development of an attracticide against light brown apple moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

An attracticide consisting of droplets containing pheromone and permethrin was formulated based on Sirene CM and tested against light brown apple moth , Epiphyas postvittana (Walker), in trapping and field cage experiments. Mo rtality of male moths in small field cages in an unsprayed apple orchard wa s approximate to 50% after 48 h. Mortality of Cydia pomonella L. in the pre sence of the registered formulation of pheromone-bai ted attracticide dropl ets, used as a positive control, was approximate to 508 after 48 h. Mortali ty of E. postvittana did not differ among treatments with different pheromo ne loadings (30, 300, and 3,000 mu g per droplet). Attracticide traces on d ead moths were found most frequently on the legs and mouthparts, although s ome moths were immersed in the droplets and a few had attracticide traces o n the wings, abdomen, or genitalia. In another experiment, male moths were released into each of 2 large field cages containing either 2 accessible at tracticide droplets with 300 mu g of E. postvittana pheromone on plastic pl atforms, or 2 identical droplets enclosed in a small mesh exclusion cage, a s a control. After 2 d, mean survivorship in the attracticide treatment was 60% compared with 98.5% in the controls. In laboratory experiments, median knockdown time for moths made to land on attracticide was 19.1 min. By the next morning, all males were dead and females had not mated. To investigat e whether 1 attracticide formulation could potentially be used for several species, trapping was done with rubber septum and attracticide lures contai ning pheromones for up to 3 tortricid species, E. postvittana, C. pomonella , and Planotortrix octo Dugdale. There was no evidence of inhibition of cat ch of E. postvittana or C. pomonella from the presence of the other pheromo nes, but catches of P. octo were too low to evaluate this effect. Attractic ide droplets baited with 300 mu g E. postvittana pheromone remained attract ive over a 12-wk trapping period. Based on an extrapolation of field cage m ortality accruing over several days and the results of a field trial report ed elsewhere, the attracticide formulation appears to have good prospects f or control of E. postvittana.