Combining insect pheromone lures alters trap capture for select lepidopteran pests

Insect pest management in orchards is often characterized by intensive insecticide inputs which can result in undesirable outcomes including costly management, resistance development, and nontarget effects. There is a need to develop more sustainable strategies to limit economic and environmental consequences of over-reliance on insecticides. Judicious use of insect pheromones can reduce the reliance on insecticidal inputs, and can be an integral part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy. While insect pheromones have been successfully exploited for pest management (e.g., attract and kill, mating disruption), research has been largely focused on how they affect the taxa of origin. Little is known about how pheromones from one taxa may affect the behavior of another taxa. In this study, we assessed whether combining pheromone lures from different taxa affects trap capture. We compared trap captures from delta traps equipped with pheromone lures from 8 taxa; delta traps with individual lures, and a trap with all lures combined comprised nine treatments. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design at 5 locations in Virginia, and 1 in Iowa; traps were deployed at 3 orchard sites and 3 field crop sites. Traps were monitored for 12 weeks with catch enumerated weekly. Data were analyzed with a linear mixed effects model; replicate, week, and location were treated as random effects. Preliminary results showed significantly lower captures in combined lure traps, suggesting an antagonistic effect of combining lures. This research ultimately aims to investigate whether deploying certain non-target insect pheromones may repel key pests.