A novel attract-&-kill technology for oriental beetle (Anomala orientalis) control in blueberries

A multi-year study was conducted in commercial blueberry farms to evaluate a novel attract-&-kill (A&K) technology to improve the efficacy of mating disruption (MD) for oriental beetle, Anomala orientalis, while lowering the amount of pheromone. Previous research showed that SPLAT™ (Specialized Pheromone & Lure Application Technology; ISCA Technologies) containing the oriental beetle pheromone could be as effective as other MD technologies. I tested the hypothesis that the addition of a toxin to the MD formulation increases its efficacy in controlling oriental beetle. In 2011, to investigate SPLAT-A&K technology for oriental beetle control, I compared the efficacy of SPLAT-MD containing 1% (Z)-7-tetradecen-2-one, the major oriental beetle sex pheromone component, and SPLAT-A&K containing the pheromone with additional 2% cypermethrin. Pheromone-baited trap captures in all plots treated with SPLAT (both MD and A&K) at 250 and 500 dollops/ha were lower compared with captures in untreated control plots, and had >95% disruption indices (DI). In 2014-2015, to identify lower effective pheromone amounts, I tested SPLAT-MD and SPLAT-A&K at 250 dollops/ha, but with two reduced dollop sizes: 0.25 and 0.5 g. Pheromone-baited trap captures in all plots treated with both SPLAT formulations were lower compared with captures in untreated plots; however, SPLAT-MD at 0.25 g-dollops had the lowest DI (<90%). In contrast, the SPLAT-A&K treatment maintained a DI above 95%. These results indicate that addition of a toxin to the sex pheromone in an attract-&-kill strategy was effective at reducing oriental beetle adults in blueberries even at quantities as low as 625 g of pheromone/ha.