ULV microencapsulated sex pheromones for codling moth
Author: Alan Knight
Published: 2007
Summary: Growers in Washington State are interested in the use of a sex pheromone formulation that can be easily applied through their standard spray equipment. Unfortunately, the microencapsulated formulations of codling moth’s sex pheromone when applied with air blast sprayer technology were found to be rather short-lived and expensive to use. The development of a low volume spray approach using the GF-120 sprayer has been able to significantly improve the performance of the MEC formulation, Checkmate™ CM-F in tests conducted since 2004. The low volume and low spray pressure application deposits 6-10-fold more microcapsules than an air blast application and creates attractive point sources (leaves) throughout the canopy of the trees. We hypothesize that this approach initially creates an effective camouflage of the virgin females’ signals and then is effective for several more weeks due to competitive attraction of the leaves with high numbers of microcapsules. Flight tunnel tests showed that apple leaves with large number of microcapsules can remain attractive to male codling moths for 3 to 4 weeks.
