Efficiency of Food Baits, Synthetic Attractants and Trap Type on Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) Trapping in Palm Plantations- Ismailia, Egypt- by Aggregation Pheromone Traps

Editorial

Authors

1 Central Laboratory For Palm Research, Arc, Egypt

2 Plant Protection Research Institute, Arc, Egypt

3 Central Laboratory For Organic Agricultue, Arc, Egypt

Abstract

Pheromone trapping of the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) is considered an environmentally safe tool in the IPM adopted strategy worldwide in date palm plantations. Field trials were conducted in Kasassin District, Ismailia Governorate -Egypt, to enhance the RPW pheromone-trapping efficiency. The current study was carried out during two successive years from April 22nd, 2015 to October 10th,2016. Results indicated that captured weevils were significantly affected by trap types where PICUSAN® trap gave the highest captured number during the experiment period which lasted for 12 weeks, i.e. 119 adult weevils, followed by the bucket trap new that registered 90 weevils. Moreover, the combined effect of sugarcane honey, pheromone, ethyl acetate and pesticides gave more attractiveness than the other 4 tested combinations, i.e. 110 adult weevils were captured by this bait during the 12 weeks of the experiment, while the other four combinations captured 81, 44, 26 and 20 weevils. The least registered weevil’s number was in sugarcane honey and pesticides. This might due to the combined effect of such treatments. The efficacy of synthetic kairmone with different combination on the attraction of weevils was also investigated. The best combination was water, aggregation pheromone, palm tissue and molasses 15% in water with mixture (EtAc: EtOH, 1:3). This combination collected about 311 adults during the 12 weeks period of the experiment. The mixture (EtAc: EtOH, 1:3) was able to boost pheromone and was almost as effective as the use of the complete bait. Ethyl acetate alone does not improve the attraction power for aggregation pheromone. In addition, sex ratio was calculated and it was found that male: female ratio was 1:1.9.

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