SemioLure-OFM, a new eco-friendly kairomone lure
The oriental fruit moth (OFM), Grapholitha molesta (Busck), is one of the major pests that cause damage on stone fruits, such as peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, etc., and on kernel fruit, such as apples, pears, etc. This insect is found in fruit-producing areas of all continents.
OFM larvae can cause infestations on branches, shoots, and fruits at different growing stages, which result in the withering of new shoots, fruit shedding, or loss of commercial value. Over the years, the control of OFM mainly relies on spraying chemical pesticides. This practice has already encountered the rising challenges of pesticide residues in fruits, as well as endangering beneficial insects, human health and safety, and other related problems.
In addition to spraying chemical insecticides, sex pheromone-based mating disruption technology and products have been utilized to control OFM. Due to the inherent limitations of mating disruption technology, it is not working well under heavy insect population pressure situations. Therefore, precision monitoring OFM population dynamics in orchards becomes a key measure to ensure effective insect control because when a heavy population arises, supplemental spraying of chemical insecticides is required. Unfortunately, when mating disruption practice is adopted, using sex pheromone lures to monitor OFM can not effectively reflect the actual population pressure of this insect because the overwhelming sex pheromone released from the mating disruption device may shut down the monitoring device that contains a tiny sex pheromone lure. Besides, because sex pheromone only attracts male adults, using sex pheromone for monitoring use can not show the population of female adults existing in orchards.
After three years of R&D and field testing in different regions and orchards in China, Bioglobal has begun supplying SemioLure-OFM, a kairomone-based lure that attracts male and female OFM. It has a field activity of over 30 days.
This lure contains food-grade fragrance as its active ingredients that are generally regarded as safe. It is an eco-friendly product and may be used in organic farming orchards. When used for monitoring purposes, it can overcome the disadvantages, as mentioned earlier, of sex pheromone lures, and it can more effectively reflect the male and female adult population of OFM in orchards.
Because this lure also attracts and kills (when used with insect traps) female adults of OFM, mated or unmated, it can be utilized as mass trapping practice to supplement chemical spraying or mating disruption by significantly reducing the fertile eggs laid and hence reducing the population of the next generation. Therefore, this lure may be very useful during the fruit pre-harvest and harvesting stage, in which the insect population pressure is usually high and spraying insecticide is restrained because of residual concern and withholding period limitations.
For further information about Bioglobal and SemioLure-OFM, please refer to the website. www.bioglobalholdings.com