A New Long-Life Trimedlure Dispenser for Mediterranean Fruit Fly

Abstract

New agricultural techniques are attempting to reduce the application of synthesized pesticides and replace them with new environmentally friendly methods such as mass trapping, mating disruption, or chemosterilization techniques. All these methods are based on the release of a lure for insect attraction or confusion. The success of the chosen method depends on the quality of the attractant emission from the dispenser. Currently, used dispensers with a polymeric matrix and new dispensers with mesoporous inorganic materials were evaluated to obtain more efficient emission kinetics. In this study, the selected pest was the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) and the lure used was trimedlure (TML). The dispensers were validated by means of a field study comparing insect catches with attractant release values. As a result, we have demonstrated that mesoporous dispensers have a clearly longer lifetime than the polymeric plug. Furthermore, the attractant release rate is less dependent on temperature in mesoporous than in polymeric dispensers.

Efficacy of attract‐and‐kill devices for the control of Ceratitis capitata

“…The dispensers for female attraction in current use have a lifespan of 4 months (Suterra LLC, Bend, OR), whereas dispensers for males can last 8 months in the field. 24 The main advantages of attract-and-kill systems over mass trapping techniques are: (1) the reduction in the manpower required for their field application; (2) the absence of an expensive device to retain the flies; (3) the non-saturation of traps. In this trial, the assembly and the hanging of the traps, filled with attractants and insecticide, in mass trapping plots required 1.5 h ha −1 , whereas the attract-and-kill systems needed about 40 min.…”

Development of new ecological long-lasting dispensers of semiochemicals for the control of Bactrocera oleae (Rossi)

“…45,46 The MD dispensers also emit more as temperatures rise, which provokes a lesser degree of pheromone retention to the mesoporous support. 40 The differences observed in the emission kinetics between dispensers from day 21 did not have any effect on the captures in the two studied zones (PC and TT). The differences observed in formulated captures were random, without following any determined pattern.…”

“…The ageing of the dispensers designed in the laboratory was carried out in a chamber with a constant temperature and air speed (30 • C; 0.35 m s −1 ) in order to study the emission behaviour under controlled conditions, based on previous experience with other pheromones. 40 A total of 30 tablets of each type were individually placed in grooved plastic cylinders in order to simulate the field emission inside the traps. They were left to age for a total of 143 days, with the residual pheromone analysed in triplicate on days 0, 9, 14, 21, 42, 56, 84, 112 and 143.…”

“…In the search for new, ecological, long-lasting and low-cost dispensers, the use of mesoporous materials has been successful in the control of other pests, such as Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824), 40 Chilo supressalis (Walker, 1863) and Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell, 1979). 41,42 The structure of the elements making up the chemical composition of these materials in the crystalline network results in enormous porosity, which, in terms of size and polarity, enables the materials to retain and release substances in a controlled way for longer periods of time.…”

Effect of sex pheromone emission on the attraction of Lobesia botrana

“…However, emission rates were only measured for 1-mg septa, so trap catches were not correlated with emission values and optimal release rates were not proposed. These studies only reported optimum pheromone loads, but the values cannot be adopted as a reference, because it has been demonstrated that similar initial loads in different dispenser types may result in different release rates (Leonhardt et al, 1990;Dominguez-Ruiz et al, 2008). Instead, the most suitable reference value to optimize the dispenser performance would be the optimum daily release rate, as this is the actual variable responsible for the airborne pheromone acting in insect attraction.…”