Professor of Cooperative Extension University of California Parlier, California
The most damaging mealybug pest of vineyards in California is Planococcus ficus Signoret. This mealybug is also an efficient vector of Grapevine leafroll-associated virus, which lowers crop yield and quality. Mating disruption has proven to be effective at managing P. ficus. However, the range the sex pheromone plume can travel and level of trap capture disruption of male P. ficus away from mating disruption dispensers is unknown. We assessed how individual mating disruption dispensers and 1 acre blocks of dispensers affected male trap captures within and outside of mating disruption areas. In 2020 and 2021 single dispensers were used and in 2022 and 2023 mating disruption was deployed with 150 dispensers evenly dispersed over 1 acre. In all years, there were three replicates of the mating disruption plots and three control plots with no mating disruption. Planococcous ficus demonstrated to be very sensitive to the sex pheromones, with downwind traps in mating disruption plots catching fewer males. Implications of the use of mating disruption as a management tactic are discussed.