The Potential Use of Pheromone Traps in Managing the Invasive Pest Spodoptera frugiperda

The Spodoptera frugiperda invasive pest was first reported in Karnataka in the year 2018 and now 2024 it has spread all over India. Commonly known as the fall armyworm, it is a destructive pest that affects a wide range of crops, particularly maize (corn), but also sorghum, rice, cotton, and various vegetable crops. Agricultural insect pest management is heavily reliant on synthetic pesticides, which do not accomplish long-term pest population reductions, particularly in areas with warm climates and extended growing seasons whereas continuous long-term pheromone-based control reduces population levels of targeted pest species. The lure for lepidopterans is generally based on the sex pheromone emitted by females Mating disruption, monitoring, and mass trapping are the major techniques of lepidopteran pest management that use female sex pheromones and they can be utilized alone, as in mating disruption or mass trapping, or in conjunction with pesticides, entomopathogens, and sterilants. In the experimental design, different densities of pheromone traps were used against Spodoptera frugiperda for monitoring pest populations in the study area.

By using different densities of pheromone traps, it was discovered that at trap densities of 8, 16, 24, 32, and Control, the Spodoptera frugiperda infection in maize crops was 61%, 51%, 30%, 10%, and 91.25%. The 10% infestation result lowest in maize crop with pheromone traps was an effective component of integrated pest management and often used in conjunction with other control methods such as biological control agents, cultural practices, and selective pesticide applications to manage fall armyworm populations sustainably and effectively.

The results showed that the percentage of fall armyworm infestation in maize crops dropped as pheromone trap densities increased. The F-test Two Sample for Variance indicated that there was a significant difference in FAW infestations between the trap densities (F = 13.05, P <0.01446) and F critical one tail 6.3882. This suggests that pheromone traps could be useful for monitoring fall armyworm males in the Maharashtra district of Nashik.