Development of an Attracticide Against Light Brown Apple Moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

An attracticide consisting of droplets containing pheromone and permethrin was formulated based on Sirene CM and tested against light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana (Walker), in trapping and field cage experiments. Mortality of male moths in small field cages in an unsprayed apple orchard was ≈50% after 48 h. Mortality of Cydia pomonella L. in the presence of the registered formulation of pheromone-baited attracticide droplets, used as a positive control, was ≈50% after 48 h. Mortality of E. postvittana did not differ among treatments with different pheromone loadings (30, 300, and 3,000 μg per droplet). Attracticide traces on dead moths were found most frequently on the legs and mouthparts, although some moths were immersed in the droplets and a few had attracticide traces on the wings, abdomen, or genitalia. In another experiment, male moths were released into each of 2 large field cages containing either 2 accessible attracticide droplets with 300 μg of E. postvittana pheromone on plastic platforms, or 2 identical droplets enclosed in a small mesh exclusion cage, as a control. After 2 d, mean survivorship in the attracticide treatment was 60% compared with 98.5% in the controls. In laboratory experiments, median knockdown time for moths made to land on attracticide was 19.1 min. By the next morning, all males were dead and females had not mated. To investigate whether 1 attracticide formulation could potentially be used for several species, trapping was done with rubber septum and attracticide lures containing pheromones for up to 3 tortricid species, E. postvittana,C. pomonella, and Planotortrix octo Dugdale. There was no evidence of inhibition of catch of E. postvittana or C. pomonella from the presence of the other pheromones, but catches of P. octo were too low to evaluate this effect. Attracticide droplets baited with 300 μg E. postvittana pheromone remained attractive over a 12-wk trapping period. Based on an extrapolation of field cage mortality accruing over several days and the results of a field trial reported elsewhere, the attracticide formulation appears to have good prospects for control of E. postvittana.