ABSTRACT
Mate finding in many insect groups is mediated by pheromones, particularly among moths where the male flies upwind along the pheromone plume to a calling female. The use of a formulated, synthetic copy of this message to disrupt this process dates to 1973 with the demonstration of protection of cotton from the pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders). This method has been expanded to many moth pests, particularly tortricid moths that infest high-value pome fruits and grapes. Because most applications of mating disruptant are not directly lethal, an operational assumption is that efficacy is enhanced when the area under disruption is large enough to mitigate the effects of mated females immigrating into the protected area. Area-wide protocols thus should optimize efficacy of disruption and possibly permit effective control for some highly dispersive species such as heliothine moths that are unlikely to be controlled only by mating disruption in farms of even multiple hectare size. Successful area-wide programmes considered include those for the pink bollworm, codling moth Cydia pomonella (L.), oriental fruit moth Grapholita molesta (Busck), navel orangeworm Amyelois transitella (Walker), European grapevine moth Lobesia botrana (Denis & Schiffermüller), and gypsy moth Lymantria dispar (L.). Efficacious control, regardless of the magnitude of the crop area, typically requires an initially low population and therefore integration with other control measures.
