Aerosol Devices for Pheromone-Based Mating Disruption: a Sustainable Approach for Managing Lobesia Botrana?

Pheromone-based mating disruption (MD) is an important strategy for managing a number of pests of agricultural importance, including key insects of grapevine. MD relies on synthetic pheromone dispensers which, when placed in the agroecosystem, delay and/or reduce the mating activity of the target pest. Through the years, the MD strategy has evolved by developing new dispensers. Earlier MD programs mainly relied on passive-release dispensers which need to be applied at 250-500 units per hectare. Today, active release dispensers are available, which can be applied at 2-4 units per hectare. These devices protect the pheromone blend from atmospheric agents, allow a reduction in installation labour costs for dispenser deployment, and optimize the pheromone release, thanks to the programmability of spraying according to the flight pattern and biology of the target pest. This contribution outlines the field efficacy of the newly developed experimental aerosol dispensers MISTER (R) L, evaluating their performances at different densities (i.e., 2, 3 and 4 units/ha) in comparison with untreated controls (i.e., vineyards where no target-specific control measures were applied) and the grower's standard (i.e., commercial passive-release MD devices Isonet((R)) L TT).