Potential of using sex pheromone for mating disruption of stored product Pyralidae

Abstract: Field trials were carried out in order to evaluate the use of the pheromone TDA,known also as ZETA (Z,E,-9,12-tetradecadienyl acetate), for mating disruption of species ofPyralidae that associated with stored products. The trials were conducted in Czech Republic,Greece and Italy, during 2007 and 2008. The facilities tested varied in their size and type, andincluded flour mills, retail stores, storage rooms with currants and raw grain stores; however, inmost cases the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella Zeller, and the Indian meal moth,Plodia interpunctella (Hübner). After a pre-treatment monitoring period, during summer period,in order to assess the population of pyralid moths in these facilities, dispensers, containing TDAwere placed, until late autumn, when moth presence was extremely low. Adjacent storerooms (orfacilities), without dispensers, were used as control units. In all cases, pheromone-baited trapswere suspended in order to monitor the population fluctuation of the pyralid moths. The presenceof dispensers reduced notably the number of adults found in the traps, in comparison with controlstorerooms. Monitoring of oviposition by mated females, by recording numbers of larvae in cupscontaining food, indicated that, there was a reduction in the number of larvae in the areas withdispensers, for both years examined. The results of the present work show that the use of matingdisruption is feasible against pyralid moths in storage facilities, and should be further evaluatedunder the basis of an IPM-based control strategy.