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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wapato, Washington » Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #307483
Title: Simpler is better: fewer nontarget insects trapped with a 4-component chemical lure versus a chemically more complex food-type bait for Drosophila suzukii

Author
item Cha, Dong
item HESLER, STEPHEN - Cornell University
item PARK, SHINYOUNG - Cornell University
item ADAMS, TODD - Oregon Department Of Agriculture
item ZACK, RICHARD - Washington State University
item ROGG, HELMUTH - Oregon Department Of Agriculture
item LOEB, GREGORY - Cornell University
item Landolt, Peter

Submitted to: Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/10/2014
Publication Date: 3/15/2015
Citation: Cha, D.H., Hesler, S.P., Park, S., Adams, T., Zack, R., Rogg, H., Loeb, G., Landolt, P.J. 2015. Simpler is better: fewer nontarget insects trapped with a 4-component chemical lure versus a chemically more complex food-type bait for Drosophila suzukii. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 154:251-260.

Interpretive Summary: Spotted wing drosophila (SWD) is a newly introduced pest of numerous fruit crops that is spreading rapidly through the U.S. and Europe, including areas of extensiive commercial fruit production such as Western U.S. Trapping with fermented food baits is presently the means of detecting and monitoring the fly, but these baits capture many nontarget insects that add time and cost to SWD monitoring program. Recently, researchers at the USDA-ARS laboratory in Wapato, Washington, developed a 4-component synthetic chemical attractants for SWD, for use in detection and management. This chemical lure is significantly more selective than a fermentation bait for nontarget insects (for both nontarget drosophilids and non-drosophilids) and should be of greater use in efforts to detect and monitor SWD.

Technical Abstract: As baits, fermented food products are generally attractive to many types of insects, making it difficult to sort through nontarget insects to monitor a pest species of interest. We test the hypothesis that a chemically simpler and more defined attractant developed for a target insect is more specific and attracts fewer nontarget insects than a chemically more complex food-type bait. A 4-component chemical lure isolated from a food bait and optimized for the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: Drosophilidae), was compared to the original wine/vinegar bait to assess the relative responses of nontarget insects. In several field experiments in Washington State, U.S.A., it was shown that pest muscid flies, cutworm and armyworm moths, and pest yellow jackets were reduced in traps baited with the chemical lure compared to the wine/vinegar bait. In other field experiments in Washington, Oregon and New York, numbers of nontarget drosophilid flies were also reduced in traps baited with the chemical lure relative to wine/vinegar bait. In Washington, numbers of melanogaster and obscura species groups and D. immigrans were reduced in the chemical lure traps, while in New York, melanogaster and obscura species groups, D. immigrans, D. putrida, D. simulans, D. tripunctata, and Chymomyza spp. were reduced. In Oregon, this same effect was observed with melanogaster species group. Taken together, these results indicate that the 4-component SWD chemical lure will be more selective for SWD compared to the wine/vinegar bait, which should reduce time and cost involved in traping in order to monitor SWD.