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January 2008. A question about the commercial avaialblity of pheromone(s) used for mating disruption of Heliothisvirescens or Heliothis (Helicoverpa) zea in cotton, from Bardados.
There are many companies on the Internet, e.g.:
http://www.coopermill.com/fruit.htm, http://www.gemplers.com/tech/lurestable.htm
A member working in India, who has been working on cotton for quite some time, found that pheromones for Helicoverpa are only marginally useful to detect whether there is a danger of crop damage. The pheromone was not very useful either for monitoring (as it gives no proper correlation with the actual population), nor for disruption.
Instead, H-NPV spraying in the evening at 1st instar (when low numbers are seen) is more useful, to create a virus epidemic that will sustain itself. Dipel will also work, but is more expensive.
In New Zealand, in a less tropical situation, pheromone trapping for monitoring flights of damaging populations of Helicoverpa armigera is an effective tool for forewarning of egg and larval infestations in tomato and corn crops. It is not used for ‘disruption’.
Australia is registering a ‘bait’ for control of Helicoverpa species in cotton and corn. It was thought that the attractant works on other noctuids, so may well work on Heliothis as well as Helicoverpa species, because they are closely related. It is worth testing.
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