Sterile Insect Technique Or Inherited Sterility
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CHAPTER 7.3. IMPACT OF MOTH SUPPRESSION/ERADICATION PROGRAMMES USING THE STERILE INSECT TECHNIQUE OR INHERITED STERILITY G. S. SIMMONS1, K. A. BLOEM2, S. BLOEM3, J. E. CARPENTER4 AND D. M. SUCKLING5,6 1USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Science and Technology, California Station and Otis Lab, Salinas, CA 93905, USA Email: [email protected] 2USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Science and Technology, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA 3North American Plant Protection Organization, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA 4USDA/ARS/CPMRU, Tifton, GA 31794, USA 5The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand 6School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, New Zealand TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1008 2. SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONAL MOTH SIT/IS PROGRAMMES .............................................. 1010 2.1. Pink Bollworm ..................................................................................................................... 1010 2.1.1. Development of the Programme ............................................................................. 1010 2.1.2. Containment in the San Joaquin Valley ................................................................. 1011 2.1.3. Area-Wide Integrated Pest Management................................................................ 1012 2.1.4. Area-Wide Eradication .......................................................................................... 1012 2.2. Codling Moth ....................................................................................................................... 1015 2.2.1. Okanagan-Kootenay Sterile Insect Release Program ............................................ 1016 2.3. False Codling Moth ............................................................................................................. 1019 2.4. Cactus Moth ......................................................................................................................... 1021 2.5. Painted Apple Moth ............................................................................................................. 1022 3. PAST EFFORTS TO DEVELOP AND APPLY MOTH SIT/IS .................................................... 1024 3.1. Gypsy Moth .......................................................................................................................... 1024 3.1.1. Release of Irradiated Pupae and F1 Sterile Egg Masses......................................... 1025 Pages 1007–1050 V. A. Dyck, J. Hendrichs and A. S. Robinson (eds.), Sterile Insect Technique. Principles and Practice in Area-Wide Integrated Pest Management. Second Edition. Published with the permission of © 2021, US Government. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. 1008 G. S. SIMMONS ET AL. 3.2. Tobacco Budworm ............................................................................................................... 1026 3.3. Corn Earworm ..................................................................................................................... 1027 3.4. Light Brown Apple Moth ...................................................................................................... 1029 4. ONGOING METHODS DEVELOPMENT OF MOTH SIT/IS ..................................................... 1030 4.1. European Grapevine Moth ................................................................................................. 1030 4.2. African Sugar Cane Borer ................................................................................................... 1031 4.3. Navel Orangeworm .............................................................................................................. 1032 4.4. Tomato Leafminer ................................................................................................................ 1033 4.5. Carob/Date Moth ................................................................................................................. 1033 5. IMPACT, CHALLENGES, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS .......................................................... 1033 5.1. Effectiveness and Impact...................................................................................................... 1034 5.2. Challenges ........................................................................................................................... 1034 5.3. Future Directions ................................................................................................................ 1036 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... 1037 7. REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 1038 SUMMARY More than 22 lepidopteran species have been investigated as candidates for control using the sterile insect technique (SIT) or inherited sterility (IS). However, to date only three programmes have been operationalized on a large-scale. The pink bollworm programme was successful at eradication across a broad swath of the cotton production area in south-western USA and northern Mexico by operating an area- wide control programme across this region using a combination of Bt-cotton, mating disruption, sanitation, and the SIT. The codling moth suppression programme in British Columbia, Canada, and the false codling moth in South Africa, have both been successful at effective suppression of the pest populations, reducing insecticide use, and improving interactions between growers and the general public. Other smaller-scale programmes against outbreaks of gypsy moth, cactus moth, and painted apple moth have also been successful, contributing to local eradications of invasive populations. New programmes are being investigated for managing a range of other target pests, including European grapevine moth in Chile, sugar cane borer in South Africa, tomato leafminer (for glasshouse populations in Europe), carob or date moth in North Africa, and naval orangeworm in California. Methods to further reduce the cost of lepidopteran programmes might include combining the SIT/IS with other environment-friendly pest control tactics such as mating disruption or the release of natural enemies, the development of genetic sexing strains, or the application of molecular technologies to develop genetic markers, genetic sexing, and genetic sterility. In the future, the greatest potential for impact of lepidopteran SIT/IS programmes may be in combating key invasive threats, with examples such as the eradication of an outbreak of the painted apple moth in New Zealand and the cactus moth in Mexico, or by adding an additional tool to pest control programmes where the use of insecticides may be limited by the development of resistance or the objection by residents in urban areas to ongoing treatments. 1. INTRODUCTION Lepidopterans are among the most devastating agricultural and forest pests in the world. In the United States of America (USA) seven of the eight most serious insect pests of agricultural crops are lepidopterans (Peters 1987). According to a list of the 37 worst invasive insect pest threats to US agriculture and plant resources, 19 are lepidopteran species (ESA 2001). A review of global eradications revealed 144 eradication efforts against 28 species of Lepidoptera (Suckling et al. 2017). Control of these pests relies largely on insecticides, and the development of resistance is becoming a serious problem for many species, e.g. codling moth (Varela et al. 1993), diamondback moth (Tabashnick et al. 1990; Shelton et al. 1993), navel orangeworm (Demkovich et al. 2015), and pink bollworm (Bagla 2010; Tabashnik and Carrière 2010). In addition, the indiscriminate use of pesticides has had a significant negative IMPACT OF MOTH SUPPRESSION/ERADICATION PROGRAMMES 1009 impact on the environment. Of particular importance to agriculture is the destruction of crop pollinators and natural enemies that keep secondary pests in check (Edwards 2000; Zaller and Brühl 2019). Therefore, it is probably not surprising that more lepidopterans than any other group of insects have been investigated as potential candidates for integrated control using the sterile insect technique (SIT) or inherited sterility (IS) (a variation of the SIT that involves the release of partially sterile insects) (North 1975; LaChance 1985; Bloem and Carpenter 2001; Marec et al., this volume). At least 22 moth species have been investigated for their potential as SIT targets -- including those with completed radiation biology studies, with field tests, and with either pilot or operational programmes (Vreysen et al. 2016; Suckling et al. 2017). In spite of the tremendous impact that area-wide control of key lepidopteran species could have, and that many species have been investigated in laboratory and field-cage studies for their suitability as candidates for SIT/IS programmes, field trials have been performed on only a limited number of species (Suckling et al. 2017). Of the 16 lepidopteran species that have been investigated in the field (Table 1), only three area-wide SIT/IS programmes have progressed to the operational stage. These are programmes against the pink bollworm in the southern USA and northern Mexico, the codling moth in British Columbia, Canada, and the false codling moth in South Africa. In these cases, partially sterile or sterile moths have been routinely released in