Location: Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-30400-001-013-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2025
End Date: Dec 31, 2027
Objective:
The objectives of the Project are to identify the physiological mechanisms of pheromone biosynthesis in thrips and to develop biological control methods for pest thrips.
Approach:
1. Chemical analysis of insect pheromones from adult male and female thrips: We will use one hundred 1-3-day old males or females placed in a 2 ml glass vial using the solid phase microextraction (SPME). Each SPME will be analyzed by a GC-MS (Agilent 7890B) using an NIST 2020 MS Library.
2. Evaluation of pheromonal activity of each volatile compound on thrips: Testing pheromone compounds will be purchased or commercially synthesized. Tests will be conducted in a glass Y-tube olfactometer. Each treatment will consist of at least 20 replicates per sex. First, each newly identified compound will be tested singly at 0.001 - 10 µg against a hexane control on opposite arms. Second, attractive compounds will be tested in 2-4 part combinations against a control; the combinations will be designed with the natural ratios and effective doses in mind.