That's compared to only 11 to 14 percent mortality in fields where bees were not used. This biocontrol approach could be especially appealing to beekeepers who rent their bees for pollinating crops. Rather than pesticides, the project's main IPM weapon will be a sex attractant that disrupts the codling moth's search for mates. Other methods discovered by ARS researchers may join the IPM package, including wasps released to attack the moth's offspring. Scientists at ARS and cooperating universities want to see how well IPM works when applied throughout a large area rather than on a single field or farm.
Test sites are in five commercial apple and pear growing areas in California, Oregon and Washington.
About 75 growers own the areas which range from 300 to 1100 acres. Earlier IPM studies have been on smaller plots. The project supports USDA's goal of helping producers apply IPM on 75 percent of U.S. crop acres by the year 2000. A blend of chemical scents and colors lures flies inside a plastic cylinder, where they die after gobbling up a mixture of methomyl insecticide and sugar. The chemical scents, ammonia and putrescine, mimic the smell of decaying fruit.