Novel environmentally friendly control of the citrus leaf miner, the proliferator of citrus canker, with sex pheromone

Valued at 1.7 billion in 2000, the US has the second largest citrus industry in the world. Among the pests plaguing the industry is the citrus leaf miner, which not only damages citrus plants, but opens the door for devastating diseases, including citrus canker. In response to consumer demand, citrus growers managing the CLM seek low-risk alternatives to traditional pesticides that utilize equipment they already possess. ISCA Technologies SPLAT (Specialized Pheromone & Lure Application Technology) is a mating disruption tool that incorporates insect sex pheromones into an emulsion capable of flowing out of backpack sprayers and tractors. We intend to formulate SPLAT with the CLM pheromone, creating a rain-fast product that sticks to foliage, protecting and releasing the pheromone for four to six months. Applied mechanically, this formulation will be tested among field populations of CLM with monitoring traps and tethered females. The results and information acquired from this project will be dispersed to key stakeholders in the citrus industry, including growers, universities, and end-users. The majority of citrus growers in the US grow citrus on farms of less than 100 acres for the production of specialty table fruit, citrus juice, with the majority of farms yielding less than $200,000 in farm income. Furthermore, much of the citrus orchard acreage is being encroached by urban growth, making it impossible to use many of the pest management tools available to the more rural growers. Successful completion of this project will provide small citrus growers with a valuable tool for managing the CLM. If labeled organic, SPLAT CLM has the potential to for use throughout the industry, including those orchards that cannot or do not use conventional pesticides.