Study on the Efficacy of Chemical Control Measures and Mating Disruption of Codling Moth, Cydia pomonella, in Apple Orchards

Codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), is an important pest of apple, pear, quince and walnut orchards in Iran. At present, application of chemical pesticides is the main measure to control this pest and no sufficient attention is paid to non-chemical control measures. Among the non-chemical methods which are being used extensively worldwide to control many insect pests such as codling moth, is behavioral control using synthetic sex pheromones. This experiment was conducted to determine the efficacy of mating disruption technique to control codling moth in Damavand and Ghoochan regions during the year 2013. Treatments included mating disruption with the installation of 1000 dispensers of sex pheromone (synthesized by Shintsu Japan) per hectare, mating disruption and chemical control by using Diazinon and Phosalone insecticides against two generation of pest and finally control treatment including chemical control. Results indicate that treatment of mating disruption chemical control had significantly less infestation (0.65± 0.037) in comparison with the mating disruption alone and control treatments (3.5±0.047 and 5.35±0.94, respectively) in Damavand region. But in Ghoochan region, the mating disruption爗ꚉ욥 control and mating disruption alone treatments had significantly less infestation (1.95± 0.80 and 2.45±0.077, respectively) in comparison with the treatment of chemical control alone (10.95±0.177).