The navel orangeworm (NOW) is a major insect pest to California tree nuts and inflicts serious economic damage. Feeding by NOW larvae causes physical damage that lowers kernel quality, but more importantly the larvae are purported to introduce aflatoxigenic fungi. Aflatoxins are toxic metabolites produced by aspergilli and are a grave food safety problem. A blend of volatiles derived from in situ emissions of almonds undergoing hull split was compared to the current female monitoring standard, almond meal, in NOW field trapping studies. The volatile blend attracted both male and female NOW throughout several two-week trapping experiments in commercial almond orchards. The blend demonstrated greater captures for adult NOW than almond meal. Results from the field trapping studies highlight important progress toward a host plant volatile blend for NOW, which presently lacks an adequate monitoring lure, particularly during mating disruption treatments.

Volatile natural products for monitoring a California tree nut insect pest

244th National Meeting (2012)

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