Attract and kill: a new method for control of the codling moth Cydia pomonella

The attract and kill technique has been formulated in a product under the trade name `Sirene CM®'. It consists of a viscous paste containing 0.16% codlemone to attract the male moths and 6.0% permethrin to kill them. The formulation is applied by hand twice per season using a specially developed system which can be calibrated for application of the paste to the host plant in small droplets of either 100 l or 50 l. Between 1995 and 1997, 15 trials on control of the codling moth were conducted in isolated orchards in the Lake Geneva region. In each plot, depending on tree size, two applications varying between 52 and 537 g ha^–1 of Sirene CM were made. In 14 trials, the larval attack of the codling moth on fruit was below the economic threshold of 1% and the hibernating population stayed at a low level. One single plot (0.4 ha) had to be treated with a curative spray in 1995, because the initial population was much too high. According to the reductions in trap catch and of mating frequency measured by tethered codling moth females, efficiency of the attract and kill droplets lasted 5–7 weeks, after which it decreased slowly.