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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #92979
Title: A NEW TRIMEDLURE PLUG DISPENSER FOR THE ATTRACTION OF MALE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLIES

Author
item Warthen Jr, J
item Leonhardt, Barbara
item CUNNINGHAM, ROY - RETIRED
item RICE, RICHARD - UNIV OF CALIF
item HARTE, EILEEN - RETIRED
item COOK, JOHN - FARMATECH

Submitted to: Entomologica Experimentalis et Applicata
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/5/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The Mediterranean fruit fly is a worldwide agricultural pest of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. An extensive effort to prevent this pest from entering the continental United States includes vigorous detection, quarantine, and eradication in subtropical areas where hosts exist. Traps are used to monitor for entries of the medfly across the border of the contiguous states. The problem was that there was only one commercial standard trimedlure polymeric dispenser for all detection programs. In a continuing effort to develop efficacious dispensers, a new commercial trimedlure polymeric plug was developed with high efficacy for us in standard Jackson traps. The new plug met the USDA performance criteria for polymeric trimedlure dispensers. The impact of this development is that there are now two commercial efficacious trimedlure dispensers, the new one of which performs more efficiently after hot weather aging in CA. .

Technical Abstract: A new commercial plug dispenser containing trimedlure, the parapheromone for male medflies, Ceratitis capita (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), was developed and tested. The dispenser showed high efficacy in comparison to reference cotton wicks baited with trimedlure and to the standard AgriSense plug dispenser, containing trimedlure, now in use in all medfly detection programs. Fly captures were not significantly different with the two styles of plugs when aged and tested in Hawaii. When both plugs were aged in California and then tested in Hawaii, the fly captures with the new plug were not significantly different from the standard AgriSense plug except for being significantly higher for the T-1 and T-2 weeks of aging. The residual amounts of trimedlure in the new plug after each aging period in California compared to that in the AgriSense plug during the same aging period were 6.8% and 3.2% greater for T-0 and T-1 weeks aged, respectively and 13.6%, 19.1%, and 26.2% less for T-2, T-4, T-6 weeks aged respectively. However, the emission rates of the California-aged new plug exceeded that of the California-aged standard AgriSense plug by 7.2, 29.6, 33.3, 14.6, and 9.5% for T-0, T-1, T-2, T-4, and T-6, respectively. .