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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 #307237
Title: Impact of trap design and density on effectiveness of a commercial pheromone lure for monitoring navel orangeworm (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Author
item Burks, Charles - Chuck
item HIGBEE, BRADLEY - Paramount Farming Company, Inc

Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/2/2014
Publication Date: 2/3/2015
Citation: Burks, C.S., Higbee, B.S. 2015. Impact of trap design and density on effectiveness of a commercial pheromone lure for monitoring navel orangeworm (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). Journal of Economic Entomology. 108:600-610. doi: 10.1093/jee/tou062.

Interpretive Summary: A pheromone lure has recently been developed for the navel orangeworm, a key pest of almond, walnut, and pistachio in California. Optimization of trap design and density is important for practical application of this pheromone lure for monitoring and informing pest management decisions. Traps baited with the artificial lure do not capture as many moths as traps baited with fresh calling females. For the artificial lure, trap type is important for effectiveness, and wing traps capture more moths than delta traps or bucket traps. Differences in abundance between adjacent walnut blocks were detected by traps placed at densities of one per 4 hectares, but not at densities of one per 20 hectares. This information will facilitate the development of crop-specific monitoring plans for nut crops grown on 514,000 ha and worth over $7 billion annually.

Technical Abstract: The navel orangeworm is an important pest of almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. A commercial pheromone lure for this pest became publicly available in 2013. We compared effectiveness of this synthetic lure (NOW Biolure) between common commercial trap designs, and with unmated females in wing traps. Orange wing traps and delta traps captured similar numbers of traps when each was baited with females, although there was a significantly greater density of captured males on the smaller glue area of the delta traps. In contrast, lure-baited wing traps captured about half the males captured in female-baited wing traps in single-night tests. In these single-night tests, wing traps baited with NOW Biolure captured significantly more males than delta traps baited with NOW Biolure, and bucket traps and delta traps baited with NOW Biolure captured similar numbers of males. When the sampling interval was extended to a week, the performance of lure-baited and female-baited wing traps was more similar. Delta and bucket traps baited with NOW Biolure generally performed more poorly than wing traps baited with NOW Biolure in these weekly monitoring tests. However, the bucket traps occasionally outperformed the other trap types during periods of peak abundance. Navel orangeworm traps at a density of one per 4 ha detected differences in abundance between adjacent walnut varieties, whereas such differences were not detected with one trap per 20 ha. The implications of these findings for monitoring for navel orangeworm in these different host crops are discussed.