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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Commodity Protection and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #321102
Research Project: Systems-Based Approaches for Control of Arthropod Pests Important to Agricultural Production, Trade and Quarantine

Location: Commodity Protection and Quality Research

Title: Effect of storage of pheromone lures for Amyelois transitella: field performance and compound ratios

Author
item Burks, Charles - Chuck
item WILK, CRISTOFER - Scientific Methods Inc

Submitted to: Florida Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/18/2017
Publication Date: 12/20/2017
Citation: Burks, C.S., Wilk, C. 2017. Effect of storage of pheromone lures for Amyelois transitella: field performance and compound ratios. Florida Entomologist. 100(4):820-822. https://doi.org/10.1653/024.100.0411.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1653/024.100.0411

Interpretive Summary: Commercial lures have recently become available for the navel orangeworm, which is the most important insect pest of tree nuts in California. We compared field performance of different lures, and the effect of age on one of the lures. There were no significant differences in effectiveness between lures acquired from different manufactures in 2015, but one of the lures proved more effective with up to two years of storage at -20°C. Gas chromatography analysis indicated that this increased effectiveness coincided with an increasing proportion of the pentaene component among volatile emission from the lures. This finding indicates to users that lures stored from one season to the next should not be assumed to be equally attractive to newly-acquired lures, and it indicates to lure manufacturers that attractiveness can be improved by increasing the proportion of pentaene emitted from the lure.

Technical Abstract: Experiments during the flight of the overwintering generation of navel orangeworm revealed that Suterra NOW Biolure pheromone lures held in storage at -20°C increased significantly in field effectiveness with time in storage over a period of 0-2 years. This increase in field effectiveness coincided with an increase in emission of (Z,Z,Z,Z,Z)-3,6,9,12,15-tricosapentaene as a proportion of (Z,Z)-11,13-hexadecadienal. These observations indicate that users should not presume equal effectiveness when lures are held over from the previous year, and suggest that manufacturers could improve lure effectiveness by increasing the proportion of (Z,Z,Z,Z,Z)-3,6,9,12,15-tricosapentaene in the lure emission.