Most of commonly used pest control practices focus on the damaging stages of the pests to crops. However, the damage might occur between the time the pest problem is recognized, and pest management actions are taken. One of the novel pest control pre-emptive strategies that will interrupts the reproductive cycle of the pests is Mating disruption.
Male moths find their prospective mates by following a female’s scent trail. By artificially increasing the amount of the “scent”- pheromone plume in the treated field, the males are overstimulated and cannot locate the female, therefore the mating of the pests is disrupted.
There are a number of benefits to using mating disruption, apart from their pre-emptive nature, as their safety for the environment and crops. Additionally, due to their specificity, there are almost no impacts on non-target organism as pollinators and others.
Some secondary pests develop over time resistance to insecticides, so by using mating disruption as a part of pest control actions, which is safe for non-target organisms, will allow better survival of natural enemies of these secondary pests, which might decrease the need for insecticide use.
It is possible to suppress pest populations or eradicate the altogether at the local level by using mating disruption over several years.
At the moment Eco Center produces mating disruption products for the following pests
• Coddling Moth – Cydia Protect
• Plum fruit moth – Grapholita Protect
• European grapevine moth – Lobesia Protect
• Tomato leafminer – Tuta Protect
• Leopard moth – Zeuzera Protect