Essential oils as vespid wasp repellents: Implications for their use as a management strategy

Abstract

Recently, plant‐based repellents have been proposed as a potential alternative to classic pesticides against pest wasps, in certain scenarios. Here, the repellent effect of Dysphania multifida essential oil and one of its main terpenoid components, α‐terpinene, were tested under field conditions with natural populations of wasps in Patagonia Argentina. D. multifida essential oil (paico), as well as α‐terpinene, repelled V. germanica wasps in the field. A strong avoidance of food baits treated with the essential oil or α‐terpinene was observed in choice and no‐choice tests. In no‐choice tests, the time it took wasps to arrive at the bait was significantly greater in treated baits than in control baits. Also, the total number of arriving wasps in 30 min was significantly greater in untreated baits in comparison with treated baits, under similar environmental conditions and wasp density. As the wasps’ flight season progressed, wasp density and motivation for proteinaceous food sources increased. This was evidenced by a greater total number of wasps in untreated baits with time. On the contrary, the number of wasps in treated baits remained low throughout the peak season. Both the paico essential oil and the α‐terpinene act as powerful repellents for V. germanica wasps, generating an avoidance response to treated food sources. Thus, these compounds have potential to be used as repellents to prevent wasps’ approaches and foraging, when applied in close proximity to a food source.

Essential oils from Dysphania genus: Traditional uses, chemical composition, toxicology, and health benefits

“…D. multifida (L.) Mosyakin and Clemants, commonly known as “paico”, is an aromatic plant widely used for medicinal purposes, perennial plant of 30–80 cm, pubescent, with a penetrating and pleasant smell, stems numerous, very branchy, leaves small, puberulous-glandulosa, shortly petiolate, with lanceolate or linear lobes, greenish ( Yossen et al, 2019 ).…”

“…The majority of the paper identified the components of D. ambrosioides EO are oxygenated monoterpenes. In several studies ( Gupta et al, 2002 ; Boutkhil et al, 2009 ; Brahim et al, 2015 ; Bisht and Kumar, 2019 ), α-terpinene (5) was quantified as the main constituent in D. ambrosioides EO, while ascaridole (29) was reported as the most abundant components in D. multifida EO ( Yossen et al, 2019 ). Less frequently, δ-3-carene (10) , limonene (4) , thymol (20) , carvacrol (19) , γ-terpinene (6) , α-terpinolene (7) , piperitone oxide (31) , geraniol (15) , α-pinene (12) , β-pinene (26) , iso-ascaridole (20) , β-myrcene (1) , α-ocimene (2) , β-ocimene (3) , citronellyl acetate (21) , β-phellandrene (8) , dihydroascaridole (32) , trans -pinocarveol (17) , carvone (24) , piperitone (23) were reported in D. multifida and D. ambrosioides EO ( Arena et al, 2018 ), while p -cymene (9) , and 4-carene (11) were reported as main components of D. ambrosioides EO in another study ( Zefzoufi et al, 2020 ).…”

Plant odors trigger clearing behavior in foraging trails- do they represent olfactory obstacles?

“…Pichi, pine and oregon essential oils were obtained from Hierbas Patagonica SRL (Esquel, Chubut, Argentina). Paico essential oil was obtained from Esquel, Universidad San Juan Bosco, Chubut, as described by (Yossen et al, 2019). Biochemical characteristics are explained in the supplementary material Table S1.…”