Abstract |
Drosophila suzukii, (Matsumura), the fruit fly Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD), is one of the most serious polyphagous pest of many small fruits, specifically stone fruits, berries and grapes. Ovipositor of the female can cause physical damages to the host fruit upon insertion, rending it soft and thus of no commercial value. Drosophila suzukii has already been recorded in America and Europe, causing significant economic damages.
Nowadays, the main way to control and manage fruit flies is the use of insecticides, which can cause various environmental problems. Another control method is the use of traps. These traps are loaded with ethanol, acetic acid and ethyl acetate, and have been shown to be effective in trapping Drosophila suzukii. The use of fermented fruit juices, especially from grapes and apples, has also been shown to be quite effective for the control of fruit flies. The main disadvantage of these traps is the reduced effectiveness and selectivity to the target insect.
In this study, we have developed a custom, dual choice, Y-shaped glass tube (olfactometer) with which we examined the efficacy of several volatile compounds as SWD attractants. We used acetic acid, ethanol, linalool and benzaldehyde, either separately or in different combinations, on both male and female SWD insects.
We have shown that the two main factors affecting the attractiveness of the baits are the concentration of the compounds, and the pest state (starvation or not). The starvation factor influences the behavior of female and not the male ones. The females respond differently to a attractants and their response is directly dependent on the need of oviposition or feed. The most attractive bait combination contains ethanol and acetic acid and acts on both female and male SWD. Finally, the mixture of ethanol, acetic acid and linalool is attractive for only female that are in need for oviposition.
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