Study highlights limitations of sexual confusion in the control of Cydia pomonella.

A study showed that most sexual confusion programs used against Cydia pomonella It has a limited effect on female mating in the field. The research evaluated commercial apple and pear orchards in the United States between 2023 and 2024 and indicated better results only when producers combined different management technologies.

Cydia pomonella, also known as the apple mothIt directly attacks the fruit and is among the main pests of temperate climate fruit growing. Control through mating confusion has gained widespread adoption in recent years.

Researchers monitored 82 orchards in the Yakima Valley, Washington state. The team tested 20 mating confusion programs, either alone or in combination. The work included traps with attractants for both sexes and the weekly release of sterilized insects to reduce the effect of external migration.

Variation between areas

The results showed great variation between treated areas. On average, less than half of the females of C. pomonella In conventional breeding programs, captured females remained without mating. This rate was only about 20 percentage points higher than that observed in orchards without sexual confusion.

The best results were achieved with combined programs. Strategies that integrated aerosols, handheld dispensers, and microencapsulated pheromones reached over 75% of unmated wild-type apple moth females. Among sterilized females, this percentage exceeded 90% in some treatments.

The use of sterilized insects increased the accuracy of the measurements. The technique allowed for a greater number of females to be collected. C. pomonella assessed by orchard and reduced interference from already mated migrant populations.

The study also linked mating and fruit damage. In 2024, 28 orchards underwent assessment for injury caused by... C. pomonellaAreas with a higher proportion of mated females recorded more damage, especially in organic systems and orchards near unmanaged sources of the pest.

According to researchers, sexual confusion, applied in isolation, reduces mating in the codling moth by about 20%. Increasing the intensity and combining technologies amplifies this effect.

Further information at doi.org/10.3390/insects17010099