Sterile Insect Technique integration with mass trapping in management of the carob moth, Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Lep.: Pyralidae) in pomegranates

Abstract The carob moth, Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is the most important insect pest of pomegranates in Iran. In this research, applicability of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) was assessed using three strategies including SIT, SIT + mass trapping (MT) by female sex pheromone, and MT in three isolated orchards in Iran during two consecutive years, 2018 and 2019. Mass rearing of the moths was done in clean rooms on an artificial diet under constant environmental conditions and 200 Gy was applied as the sterilizing dose of gamma irradiation at pupal stage. Insect pest damage was declined in both 2018 and 2019 in all treatments significantly. As a result of SIT in 2018 and 2019, damage of the pest reduced 11.6 and 11.8 times compared to control orchard, respectively. Also, as a result of applying SIT + MT in 2018 and 2019, we observed 2.26 and 2.79 times decrease in the damage relative to the control orchard, respectively. In this way, SIT has been 5.14 and 4.23 times more successful than SIT + MT in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Due to lack of synthetic sex pheromone source, MT treatment was replaced with biological control treatment by Trichogramma embryophagum in 2019 and SIT was more successful than the SIT + parasitoid considerably.