Life history changes in Trogoderma variabile and T. inclusum due to mating delay with implications for mating disruption as a management tactic

Controlling postharvest pest species is a costly process with insecticide resistance and species‐specific control requiring multiple tactics. Mating disruption (MD) can be used to both decrease a female's access to males and delay timing of mating and decreases overall mating success in a population and population growth rate. Development of new commercially available MD products requires an understanding of life history parameters associated with mating delay. These can provide information for targeting proportions of reproducing individuals using MD. After delaying mating for females of two closely related beetle species, Trogoderma variabile and T. inclusum, we surveyed survivorship, number of eggs laid, and number of progeny emerged. With increases in mating age, total number of eggs laid and total number of progeny emerged significantly declined over time. T. inclusum typically had greater numbers of eggs laid and progeny emerged compared to T. variabile as female age at mating increased, suggesting that T. inclusum may be more resistant to long‐term delays in mating. Life span showed an increase as mating age increased but life span significantly decreased almost immediately following mating. Simulations depicting multiple distributions of mating within a population suggest that in a closed population, high levels of mating delay significantly reduced reproductive growth rates. Although reproductive growth rates were decreased with increased mating age, they are still large enough to maintain populations. This study highlights the differences in life history between two closely related species, suggesting that T. inclusum outperforms T. variabile over the course of a life span, but T. variabile has better reproductive capabilities early in life. MD may also be a viable component of a pest management system for these two species as it significantly decreased overall reproductive output and population growth.