Combined sprays of sex pheromone and insecticides to attract-and-kill codling moth

Abstract: Sprayable pheromone formulations when used alone may fail to provide adequatecodling moth control in field trials especially in high pressure situations. As an alternative, fieldtrials were conducted to evaluate the potential of an "attract-and-kill" approach for control ofcodling moth by adding half-rates of microencapsulated (MEC) lambda-cyhalothrin oracetamiprid to a sex pheromone formulation in Turkey and the USA in 2006. Two apple orchardswere divided into six 1ha blocks treated with the following rates applied in high-volume sprays(635 liters water/ha) via standard fan sprayer in Turkey: half or full-rate (25g a.i./ha) of sprayablepheromone alone, half or full-rate (250ml) of lambda-cyhalothrin alone, 12.5g pheromone + halfrateof insecticide, and 12.5g pheromone + full-rate of insecticide. Small-plot studies with 8replicates each using 0.2ha plots in the USA used a full rate of pheromone 25g a.i./ha only, a halfrate of acetamiprid (60ml/ha), and both together applied in low volume sprays (12 liters water/ha)via ATV-mounted sprayer. The low volume sprays were applied in a narrow band to the upperthird of the canopy. The efficacy of treatments was evaluated by monitoring adult catches inpheromone traps and fruit injury assessments. The pheromone and insecticide mixture reducedtrap catches as well as fruit damage. Overall, the combination of sex pheromone and half-ratesprays of insecticides improved codling moth control by 50% compared with half and full-rateapplications of sprayable pheromone alone. In addition, when combined with sprayablepheromone reducing the full-rate of insecticide to half-rate also increased control of codling mothby 50%.