An Interreg Project for the Effective and Safe Plant Protection in the EU

The aim of this project is to develop regional, post-gradual plant protectional courses and connecting extension services (databases) in the areas of Hajdú-Bihar county (Hungary) and Bihor county (Romania) with locations of Debrecen and Oradea (mirror projects). The programme provides special post-gradual courses in the field of plant protection for farmers in the region (25-25 persons in Debrecen and in Oradea) and can act as models for further developments. In these projects EU-related curriculum as well as handbooks, power point presentations (in Hungarian and Romanian languages) planned to be developed in close collaboration. Professional training books and CD-ROMs will be purchased to develop the educational infrastructure. The results of the projects and continuous professional education are not only more precise pesticide application or less pesticide use in the agricultural sector but more healthy (and human safe) agricultural products and positive impact on environmental-pollution parameters. The information will be provided via fax, bulletins and special WEB-pages for the target groups. At the end of the projects final evaluation conferences (in Hungary and in Romania) will be held for the end-users

Improving Bisexual Lures for the Silver Y Moth Autographa gamma L. and Related Plusiinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

The addition of synthetic eugenol and benzyl acetate to the known floral chemical and moth attractant phenylacetaldehyde synergized attraction of the silver Y moth Autographa gamma, an important noctuid pest. Traps baited with the ternary blend caught 2 to 6 times more A. gamma moths than traps baited with phenylac-etaldehyde alone. Both female and male moths were attracted, supposedly in the natural sex ratio of the local population. More A. gamma were caught when the blend was formulated in dispenser types with higher release rates. Traps baited with the ternary lure in polyethylene bag dispensers caught 20% to 34% as many moths as were caught in traps baited with synthetic sex pheromone, suggesting that this improved bisexual lure could be efficient enough to yield a new tool for detection and monitoring of female and male A. gamma, for more reliable plant protection decisions. The same ternary lure also improved trap catches of moths over phenylacetaldehyde alone for the plusiinae pests MacDunnoughia confusa (in Europe) and Autographa californica (in North America) and for the Noctuinae cutworm Xestia c-nigrum (in North America)

An improved female-targeted semiochemical lure for the European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn.

The addition of synthetic 4-methoxy-2-phenethyl alcohol to the known attractant phenylacetaldehyde synergized attraction of the European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis, the blend invariably catching 3 to 5 times more than phenylacetaldehyde on its own. Highest catches were recorded by the 1:1 blend. Both females and males were attracted, supposedly in the natural sex ratio of the local population. This improved bisex O. nubilalis attractant could be more efficient and more suitable for detection and monitoring purposes than previously know lures, making possible to draw more reliable plant protection decisions

Development of a female-targeted attractant for the click beetle, Agriotes ustulatus Schwarz

A binary combination of the synthetic floral compounds (E)-anethol and (E)-cinnamaldehyde has been optimized as a female-targeted lure for adults of the click beetle, Agriotes ustulatus Schwarz (Coleoptera, Elateridae). This bait when placed in traps attracted significant numbers of beetles and a high percentage of the captured specimens was female. Painting the trap in white (a colour to which attraction of A. ustulatus was reported in the literature) had no significant effect on the performance of the floral attractant. To our knowledge this is the first synthetic attractant discovered for female click beetles. Application perspectives for female-targeted lures is shortly discussed

Development of Trapping Tools for Detection and Monitoring of Diabrotica v. virgifera in Europe

Trap designs baited with the synthetic sex pheromone have been optimized for trapping of the western corn rootworm Diabrotica v. virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) (WCR), which has recently been introduced into Europe. The best trap design proved to be the sticky “cloak” trap (code name “PAL”), which catches only males, and is being used in many countries of Europe for detection and monitoring the spread of the new pest. Preliminarily the range of attraction (as defined by Wall and Perry, 1987) of the pheromone traps was estimated to be <10 m. The performance of yellow sticky plates (used by others for monitoring of the pest) was insignificant as compared to the activity of the pheromone baited traps, and yellow colour had no discernible effect on catches in pheromone traps. The known floral lure of WCR containing 4-methoxy-cinnamaldehyde and indole proved to be active also towards the population in Europe, attracting both females and males. Yellow colour slightly increased catches by the floral lure, hence a yellow sticky “cloak” trap has been developed (code name PALs). Pheromone baited PAL traps caught a total of about 4 times more beetles than the floral baited PALs, which latter however appeared to be preferentially active for females. When placed into the same trap, the pheromonal and floral lures did not interfere with each other's activity