Response of two tephritid species, Bactrocera oleae and Ceratitis capitata, to different emission levels of pheromone and parapheromone

Abstract

Attractants and pheromones are commonly used in integrated pest management programs in crop systems. However, pheromone dispensers employed in monitoring traps and lure and kill devices are not usually well studied and attractants are released at uncontrolled rates leading to low treatment efficacies and misleading monitoring estimations. Fruit flies are pests of economic importance and monitoring is essential in order to program insecticidal treatments. Moreover, lure and kill techniques are being increasingly used, but the cost of these techniques depends on the number of required traps and, therefore, on the efficacy of the attractants. Ceratitis capitata and Bactrocera oleae are the two main fruit flies in Mediterranean countries, and the effect of different doses of trimedlure and spiroacetal on fly attraction has been studied. Results showed that a release rate over 1.28 mg/day of spiroacetal reduces B. oleae attraction and emission values over 2.4 mg of trimedlure per day did not increase C. capitata catches. Under the environmental conditions of our study, an optimum release rate for pheromone attraction in B. oleae was determined. Emission values over this optimum level reduced B. oleae attraction. However, when a parapheromone was used with C. capitata, a fruit fly of the same family, the optimum emission value was not found and higher quantities of parapheromone attracted the same number of flies. The saturation effect of high concentrations of pheromone and parapheromone is discussed.