4.Accomplishments
1. Attractant for emerald ash borer. The emerald ash borer (EAB) is a recently established pest of ash in the U.S., which has the potential to eliminate ash as a component of North American forests. Currently, girdled trees with sticky bands are used to monitor the pest. In cooperation with scientists in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, five volatile chemicals from girdled ash trees were identified that are attractive to both adult male and female EABs. Two commercially-available essential oils that contain these compounds were found: manuka oil and phoebe oil. Phoebe oil was the best attractant in field trapping experiments, and both oils are being developed for use in EAB monitoring traps. Optimization of these traps may reduce or eliminate the need for the destruction (girdling) of uninfested trees. National Program 304 Component VI: Integrated Pest Management Systems and Areawide Suppression; Problem: Sampling Methods, Detection, and Monitoring.

2. Attractant for predacious green lacewings. Lacewings, especially green lacewings, are major predators of aphids and other soft-bodied insects. Because of their commercial availability and resistance to insecticides, lacewings are among the most commonly released predators for augmentative biological control. Earlier, scientists in the Laboratory identified a male-specific compound from the common goldeneyed lacewing (GEL), and devised a method to economically make the suspected attractant from commercially available catnip oil. However, in the initial field tests, traps baited with this compound caught almost exclusively GEL males. Now it has been shown that GEL females are strongly attracted to the vicinity of the pheromone—the first for any kind of lacewing—even though they do not enter traps baited with the pheromone. Attracted wild females laid hundreds of eggs, effectively creating an army of the voracious predator larvae in garden vegetables. This research demonstrates that it is feasible to use artificial chemical attractants to dramatically boost localized wild populations of at least some kinds of predators. National Program 304 Component V: Pest Control Technologies; Problem Area D: Other Biologically-Based Control.

3. Attractant for the cocoa pod borer. The cocoa pod borer (CPB) has been reported as the most serious pest of cacao in Southeast Asia, with losses that can exceed 30% of the crop. Management of the CPB relies heavily on pesticide applications. The CPB sex pheromone was identified in 1986, but efforts to use the pheromone for mating disruption of the CPB were abandoned in the 1990s for economic reasons, and because it was thought that different strains of CPB existed in Asia that behaved differently to the pheromone blend. Reevaluation of the CPB pheromone system by Laboratory scientists showed that the same pheromone blend was attractive throughout Indonesia. A CPB monitoring system based on the newly formulated pheromone has been established, and the attractant is now commercially available. An effective pest monitoring system based on the commercial attractant should enable cocoa farmers in the region to spray only when and where needed, and may lead to effective areawide mating disruption of the CPB. National Program 304 Component V: Pest Control Technologies; Problem Area D: Other Biologically-Based Control.

6.Technology Transfer

Number of Active CRADAs	2
Number of the New MTAs (providing only)	6
Number of Invention Disclosures Submitted	1
Number of New Commercial Licenses Executed	1
Number of Non-Peer Reviewed Presentations and Proceedings	1
Number of Newspaper Articles and Other Presentations for Non-Science Audiences	1

Review Publications
Crook, D.J., Khrimian, A., Fraser, I., Francese, J.A., Poland, T.M., Mastro, V.C. 2008. Electrophysiological and behavioral responses of Agrilus planipennis (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) to host bark volatiles. Environmental Entomology. 37(2):356-365.