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  • From: "Jeff Ball" <jeffball@starband.net>
  • To: "'gardenwriters-on-gardening'" <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [gwl-g] Fwd: New Lures To Trap Pesky Caterpillars
  • Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 10:39:30 -0500

I tried the SMARTrap traps in my vegetable garden this year. I rigged
two traps and got very little response. I guess I caught three moths in
one and none in the other. I was not impressed. I assume I have more
than three night flying moths in my veggie patch. At the same time, now
that I think about it, I had no caterpillar damage; just slugs and
grasshoppers. Maybe it does work and I live in low rent district for
moths.

Jeff Ball

-----Original Message-----
From: gwl-g-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:gwl-g-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lon Rombough
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 9:55 AM
To: Gardenwriters on Gardening Gardening
Subject: [gwl-g] Fwd: New Lures To Trap Pesky Caterpillars

From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: November 4, 2004 4:37:18 AM PST
Subject: New Lures To Trap Pesky Caterpillars
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>

STORY LEAD:
New Lures To Doom Crop-Damaging Caterpillars
___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Jan Suszkiw, (301) 504-1630, jsuszkiw@ars.usda.gov
November 4, 2004
___________________________________________

Enticing new lures developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientists could make backyard gardens, fruit orchards and crop fields
places of no return for pesky caterpillars.

The lures, derived from molasses and floral odors, tantalize both male
and female moths--the caterpillars' adult stage--with the promise of
nectar. Instead, the insects fly into the opening of a lure-dispensing
trap, never to escape.

Peter Landolt, research leader at the ARS Vegetable Insects Research
Unit in Wapato, Wash., and Connie Smithhisler, a chemist there,
developed the lures as an alternative to chemically controlling the
pests--loopers, cutworms, fruitworms, armyworms and corn earworms.

According to Landolt, most currently used lures act on the male moth's
sense of smell. These lures work by dispensing a synthetic version of
the female moth's chemical sex attractant, or pheromone, which the
males find irresistible. Saturating the air with synthetic pheromone
confuses the male moths, disrupting their ability to find mates. Such
lures are also used to monitor the pests' movements and whereabouts.
But most lures offer no way of keeping tabs on the female moths,
according to Landolt.

He and Smithhisler overcame the problem by identifying, testing and
synthesizing blends of volatile compounds from molasses that attract
both sexes of moths. In another "unisex" lure formulation, the
researchers combined various floral scents, including those from Oregon
grape, honeysuckle and Gaura flowers. The molasses-derived lure is now
commercially available for garden use as the product SMARTrap. The
floral based lures are in their second year of field tests. In one
trial, by Washington State University graduate student Leonardo Camelo,
who works at the ARS lab, use of the floral lures in a "killing
station" reduced the number of alfalfa loopers by 75 percent.

Read more about the research in this month's issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov04/moth1104.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
___________________________________________

* This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
subscribers on weekdays.
* Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
* NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
* Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1486




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