MATING DISRUPTION OF CODLING MOTH (CYDIA POMONELLA) USING “PUFFERS”

In 1996, a large scale trial was initiated to test a novel, economical dispenser, the “puffer”. Puffers are plastic devices containing a pressurized aerosol can filled with pheromone.
A timer triggers a plunger to open a valve, releasing a given amount of pheromone at a preset time interval.

Puffers full of the codling moth (Cydia pomonella) (CM) pheromone codlemone and butane-propane propellent were applied to 65 hectares (160 acres) of Bartlett pears under heavy CM pressure (178 moths per season, 5-year average per orchard) in Kelseyville, Lake County, California on April 16. Devices were placed every 55m (135 feet) around the perimeter of the site, with some additional ones within the site for an application rate of 1 per 0.53 ha (1.3 acres). Pheromone was released every 25 minutes from April through September.
All dispensers were replaced June 1; the butane was replaced with an experimental propellent and OBLR pheromone was added.
Upwind units were again replaced in mid July due to propellent interference with emission during a prolonged heat spell.
On all but 63 ha (156 acres), the normal CM control program was carried out in addition to the pheromone.
Four 0.4 ha (1-acre) plots in the center of the site were left untreated except for pheromone.
Numerous 1 mg., 10 mg., and OBLR traps were placed throughout the site, as well as in two upwind standard program orchards used as grower controls.
A third upwind orchard lacking any CM control was used as an untreated comparison.

Trap catches, CM eggs and fruit damage (1st generation, preharvest, bin and postharvest samples) were recorded in mating disruption (MD), standard, and untreated orchards.
No eggs were found in any plots in a mid-May sample and there was no 1st generation CM damage; however, OBLR damage averaged 1% in the MD plots.
Preharvest CM damage was zero in downwind MD plots but averaged 1.8% in upwind plots.
Bin counts were 0 in downwind and averaged 1.0% in upwind plots.
OBLR damage averaged 11% in all MD plots but only 1.0% in the MD + OP-treated areas, reflecting the lack of early OBLR pheromone to control the 1st generation and confirming the relative efficacy of chemical control.

VII International Symposium on Pear Growing

R.B. Elkins, H.H. Shorey

Pheromone dispensers, integrated pest management

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.475.62