SPLAT BASE: A Revolutionary Attract And Kill Technology To Effectively Manage Orchard Pests.

Our Phase I research and development in laboratory bioassays, wind tunnel, caged trees, and small field trials, indicates that different approaches are needed to maximize contact of the moth with the source containing the insecticide. We found that optimizing an attract and kill formulation that actually attracts and kills the males, instead of disrupting their orientation, is a fine balancing act of different components (pheromone and insecticide dose and release rate) that affect the behavior of the male in very different ways. Our Phase I research and development demonstrated that it is possible to have the same results in fruit protection as the golden standard commercial mating disruption formulation when using the SPLAT BASE strategy with formulations containing 20% or less pheromone. It is clear that the development of formulations as proposed here could provide the best opportunity for success in effectively and economically controlling key Lepidopteran pests in pome fruit orchards and we aim to explore this breakthrough in understanding A & K through this SBIR project and to create an effective SPLAT BASE attract and kill line of products.