Development and commercialisation of pheromone products in New Zealand

Abstract

The sale of pheromone traps lures and mating disruption products for horticultural insect pest species has grown steadily since the late 1980s with expanding sales to New Zealand growers from Plant Food Research (PFR) and its predecessors New biosecurity incursions led to pheromone identifications for delimitation and pest management of other species Mating disruption products were developed to target leafrollers currant clearwing codling moth and oriental fruit moth In 201011 the activity involved with production of > 30 pheromone products was sold as a business unit by PFR to a New Zealand company In addition the first legislative group standard for plant protection products was drawn up to enable future development of straightchained lepidopteran sex pheromones under New Zealands Environmental Protection Authority The availability of pheromone products to assist with decision support and pest management is now subject to market forces

Screening for attractants compatible with entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae for use in thrips management

“…Author(s) agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Teulon et al, 2014;Broughton et al, 2015). These semiochemicals can be integrated with other control strategies to improve thrips management in horticulture (Suckling et al, 2012;Sampson and Kirk, 2013).…”

Multiple species mating disruption of leafrollers in cherries in Central Otago

“…In 2012/13 a total of 64 E. postvittana and 24 P. octo traps were installed during 8-12 November 2012. The two component lures used in the traps were described by Suckling et al (2012a). Large-scale mating disruption commenced at 45 South in 2009/2010 using dispensers containing a pheromone blend described elsewhere (Walker et al 2011;Suckling et al 2012b).…”

“…Three leafrollers, light brown apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana) and the two endemic tortricids, green-headed leafroller (Planotortrix octo) and brown-headed leafroller (Ctenopseustis obliquana), along with the New Zealand lower thrips (Thrips obscuratus) are the main quarantine pests of this crop. Mating disruption of moths using synthetic sex pheromone is now a well-accepted tactic in many production systems (Witzgall et al 2010;El-Sayed 2013), including several in New Zealand (Suckling et al 2012a). It offers residue-free intervention, selective targeting of pest species, minimal interference with biological control agents and enhanced resistance management.…”

“…Where certain leafroller species occur together in a region, as in Central Otago, they can be controlled using a single dispenser (Suckling et al 2012a). McLaren et al (1998) reported earlier success with leafroller control using two separate pheromone dispensers in comparatively large scale trials in Central Otago export stonefruit orchards (mainly apricots).…”

“…One dispenser targeted E. postvittana (Suckling et al 1990) and the other was a combined dispenser for P. octo and C. obliquana. A combined dispenser for all three species was methodically examined in area-wide trials on a mix of stonefruit crops in Central Otago in 2008 and 2009 (Suckling et al 2012a). However, the commercial development and use of the combined dispenser in Central Otago has since been focused largely on cherries.…”