Effect of the combined treatment of insecticides and an attractant for the control of Phloeotribus scarabaeoides,a pest of Olea europea

Different insecticides have been tested for the control of the olive bark beetle, Phloeotribus scarabaeoides Bern. This scolytid can be managed at two points in its biological cycle: in pruned logs, where it excavates reproduction galleries, or in living trees, after emergence from the logs, where it digs feeding galleries. In mortality laboratory bioassays, the efficiency of organophosphorus insecticides has been ranked as follows: chlorpyrifos + dimethoate < formothion < methidathion. Formothion and methidathion, the two most efficient, were sprayed on olive logs together with a pyrethroid insecticide, deltamethrin, and a formulation which combined an organophosphorus (fenitrothion) and a pyrethroid (cypermethrin) insecticide. Deltamethrin inhibited the excavation of new reproduction galleries and induced a repellent effect on the olive pest. In contrast, none of the organophosphorus insecticides or the combination, fenitrothion + cypermethrin, were able to control the olive bark beetle. In olive trees, deltamethrin controlled this olive pest without showing the repellent effect observed for logs. Ethylene, a plant hormone, has been reported as an attractant for the olive bark beetle. The use of dispensers which released ethylene increased the number of P. scarabaeoides approaching the treated olive trees, thus favouring its use in a lure-and-trap control system.     

The dimpling bug,Campylomma austrina Malipatil (Hemiptera: Miridae): the damage and its relationship with ants in mango orchards in the Northern Territory of Australia

The dimpling bug, Campylomma austrina Malipatil, has been recognised since 2002 as a serious mango pest in the Northern Territory, Australia. To fully understand the damage the bug causes and its relationship with ants, field experiments were conducted in five mango orchards in the Darwin area from 2001 to 2003 along with laboratory rearing trials. The latter revealed that the dimpling bug sucked sap mainly from the ovary of the flowers. As the ovary ripened, each puncture resulted in a black pimple on the skin of the marble-sized fruit (<5 mm in diameter). All of the most heavily damaged marble-sized fruits (>10 pimples/fruitlet) dropped from the trees. A field survey and field experiments showed that marble-sized fruit damage levels on trees bearing abundant weaver ants, Oecophylla smaragdina Fabricius, were similar to those protected by chemical insecticides, however both suffered less damage than trees bearing fewer or no weaver ants or black ants, Iridomyrmex sp. We propose that the weaver ant is an efficient bio-control agent of the dimpling bug, and to limit the bug damage, high levels of weaver ant populations are required in mango orchards.