Studies on service free semiochemical mediated technologies to control red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier based on trials in Saudi Arabia and India

Faleiro, J.R., A.-M. Al-Shawaf, H.A.F. El-Shafie and S. Pai Raikar. 2019. Studies on service free semiochemical mediated technologies to control red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier based on trials in Saudi Arabia and India. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 37(2): 136-142. The red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is key invasive pest causing wide spread damage to date palm Phoenix dactylifera L. in the middle east and north Africa where it is designated as a category-1 pest by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Food baited pheromone (ferrugineol) traps have been widely used to both monitor and mass trap adult RPW in palm based agro-ecosystems all over the world since early 1990s. However, due to inherent problems associated with the periodic replacement of the food bait and water (trap servicing) in the traditional pheromone trap, pheromone trapping in area wide IPM programmes to control the pest have become costly and unsustainable. This article presents an overview of the field studies were carried out in Saudi Arabia and India to evaluate service-less trapping techniques of RPW using i) trap free "Attract and Kill" technology and ii) dry trap designed on the principle of electromagnetic communication and olfaction in insects. While "Attract and Kill" studies were carried out in three locations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and one location in India, the dry trap was tested only in Saudi Arabia. Multiple field studies to evaluate "Attract and Kill" tools against RPW showed that large numbers of the adult weevils could be eliminated without the additional effort involved in the periodic servicing associated with the traditional food baited pheromone traps. Furthermore, comparative efficiency of the service-less dry pheromone trap against the traditional food baited traps, revealed that weevil captures in both the dry trap and the food baited traps were statistically similar. The above semiochemical mediated techniques offer sustainable trapping solutions for RPW management, and could be deployed especially in areas where the trap density has to be increased due to high weevil activity.