JOURNAL OF LIAONING TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

MONITORING OF CODLING MOTH (C. Pomonella, Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) USING PHEROMONE TRAPS

Shahir Yar, Zaffar Ahmed, Shah Zaib, Aziz Ullah, Atif Ali, Niaz Muhammad, Aqil Hussain, Muhammad Kamran, Abdullah, Zarnosh Habib, Syed Saboor Khan

ABSTRACT

Monitoring codling moth, Cydia pomonella L., in farmer’s orchard by installing sex pheromone traps is a key prerequisite for its effective management. For mass trapping of C. pomonella, sex pheromones were installed to evaluate their performance in apple orchard of Loralai district of Balochistan. Four different pheromone traps were installed in randomized complete block design (RCBD). Each trap was replicated three times with experimental units of twelve traps in an area of 43560 square feet. The results revealed significantly different at (P<0.05) and observed that C. pomonella moths captured maximum in the month of May (25.29±1.39), followed by June (22.54±0.64) and lowest in July (11.36±0.57). Turning the findings into weeks, the numbers of trapped adult C. pomonella fluctuated, and the highest overall population of C. pomonella moths (34.75±0.12) were captured on very first week of observation when newly sex pheromone traps were installed in apple orchard, followed by third week (30.39±0.59) when lures were changed fortnightly. After the third week, the captured population of moths remained in twenties from fourth week till eight week of observation and trapped population ranged (20.68±0.49 to 25.36±0.2) overall. Later, as the temperature increased in last weeks of observation, the number of moths remained less or more in installed sex pheromone traps and ranged (10.89±1.07 to 17.04±0.39) from week nine to twelfth week. The weekly moths trapped results further observed that the lowest number of moths captured (6.14±0.59) in overall traps of the studied apple orchard. The flying ethology of C. pomonella showed statistically different and executed that maximum number of C. pomonella moths were trapped at night (27.46±1.72), followed by evening (11.72±1.51), morning (3.58±0.45), and the lowest in afternoon (2.28±0.08). Furthermore, populations of C. pomonella moths trapped overall were correlated with temperature and relative humidity and results for correlation show that moths captured showed positive but least correlation and not significant (r=0.175, F =113.79, P < 0.651), while trapped moths population showed negative but highest correlation with relative humidity and highly significant (r=-0.984, F =113.79, P < 0.0000) at 0.05 probability level.