Management of Oriental Fruit Moth and Codling Moth with spray application of microencapsulated sex pheromone

Abstract: Codling moth (Cydia pomonella L.) and oriental fruit moth (Grapholita molesta (Busck)) are the main pests of apples and peach, respectively. Various formulations of synthetic sex pheromones of both species have been developed in order to manage these pests in apple and peach orchards. The most common use of sex pheromones has been with hand-applied dispensers, but their application is labour intensive and growers are interested in alternative approaches. Two sprayable microencapsulated formulations of sex pheromone have recently been commercialized. They can be applied either alone or mixed with different chemicals. Our studies, conducted in 2007 and 2008, showed that this method was very effective for both codling moth and oriental fruit moth and achieve the same results as insecticides and hand-applied pheromone dispensers.