Inclusion of Specialist and Generalist Stimuli in Attract-and-Kill Programs: Their Relative Efficacy in Apple Maggot Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) Pest Management

Abstract

Investigating the chemical ecology of agricultural systems continues to be a salient part of integrated pest management programs. Apple maggot fly, a key pest of apple in eastern North America, is a visual specialist with attraction to host fruit-mimicking cues. These cues have been incorporated into red spherical traps used for both monitoring and behaviorally based management. Incorporating generalist or specialist olfactory cues can potentially increase the overall success of this management system. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the attractiveness of a generalist olfactory cue, ammonium carbonate, and the specialist olfactory cue, a five-component apple volatile blend, when included as a component of a red attracticidal sphere system. Secondly, we assessed how critical it was to maintain minimal deviation from the optimal, full-round specialist visual stimulus provided by red spheres. Finally, attracticidal spheres were deployed with specialist olfactory cues in commercial apple orchards to evaluate their potential for effective management of apple maggot. Ammonium carbonate did not increase residency, feeding time, or mortality in the laboratory-based trials. Field deployment of specialist olfactory cues increased apple maggot captures on red spheres, while the generalist cue did not. Apple maggot tolerated some deviation from the optimal visual stimulus without reducing captures on red spheres. Attracticidal spheres hung in perimeter trees in orchards resulted in acceptable and statistically identical levels of control compared with standard insecticide programs used by growers. Overall, our study contributes valuable information for developing a reliable attract-and-kill system for apple maggot.

Attraction of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs, Halyomorpha halys, to Blooming Sunflower Semiochemicals

“…Failure of the synthetic odor lure on its own to attract BMSBs in field settings was likely due to the absence of plant visual cues and the presence of competing live host plants with complex semiochemical and visual cues. That both visual and olfactory plant cues guide foraging herbivores has been demonstrated in diverse insect taxa, including apple maggot flies (Epsky and Heath 1998;Morrison et al 2016a), cabbage moths (Rojas and Wyatt 1999), and woodboring insects (Campbell and Borden 2009).…”

Factors affecting the efficacy of attracticidal spheres for management of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera Drosophilidae)

“…Field trials utilizing apple orchard perimeter deployment of attracticidal spheres, both with and without olfactory cues, showed a level of protection from R . pomonella comparable to grower standard insecticide controls (Morrison, Lee, Reissig, et al., 2016; Wright et al., 2012).…”

Successful management of Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in commercial apple orchards with an attract‐and‐kill strategy

“…Indeed, over 25,000 H. halys adults were killed at six baited trees with 1000 mg of H. halys aggregation pheromone over a 6‐day period . AK has been used to manage pests in other systems, including Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann (Diptera: Tephritidae) in citrus orchards in Spain, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh) (Diptera: Tephritidae) and Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in northeastern USA apple orchards, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on date palm plantations in Saudi Arabia, and Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in potato fields in Peru and Australia . These studies illustrate that AK can be used successfully in a variety of systems, under different abiotic conditions, and against a variety of taxa.…”