| Title: | Small cages with insect couples provide a simple method for a preliminary assessment of mating disruption |
| Author(s): | Briand F; Guerin PM; Charmillot PJ; Kehrli P; |
| Address: | "Station de recherche Agroscope Changins, Wadenswil ACW, CP 1012, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1537-744X (Electronic) 2356-6140 (Print) 1537-744X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "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 mum 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" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Biotechnology/methods Equipment Design Female Insecta Lepidoptera/*metabolism Male Pest Control, Biological/methods Sex Attractants/*chemistry Sexual Behavior, Animal Switzerland;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineBriand, Francoise Guerin, Patrick M Charmillot, Pierre-Joseph Kehrli, Patrik eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2012/05/31 ScientificWorldJournal. 2012; 2012:960468. doi: 10.1100/2012/960468. Epub 2012 May 3" |
