Moth Attractant Blend Found to Be Effective Control for Devastating Fall Armyworm
A recent scientific study found that a proprietary blend of naturally occurring moth attractants, now marketed in Brazil under the brand name Noctovi, is effective for controlling one of the world’s most damaging insect pests, the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda.
Entomologists from the federal University of Grande Dourados in Brazil found that Noctovi mixed with tiny amounts of a conventional insecticide controlled populations of the fall armyworm, reducing damage to corn crops at all eight test sites in the Mato Grosso do Sul, in the Cerrado agricultural region of Brazil.
Entitled “Toxic Bait as an Alternative Tool in the Management of Spodoptera frugiperda in Second Corn Crops,” the study was published online in the Journal of Agricultural Science, a publication of the Canadian Center of Science and Education.
The control of the fall armyworm was achieved by a technique called attract-and-kill. Noctovi contains a blend of compounds released in nature by plants that are highly attractive to the fall armyworm and other moths, targeting closely related moths of the Noctuid family which includes cutworms, armyworms, and owlet moths. By attracting and inducing the adult moth pests to feed on the formulation, the amount of insecticide necessary for control in the area treated with Noctovi is reduced by more than 90%.
The Noctovi formulation does not attract bees, which are left unharmed.
“Control of FAW (fall armyworm) adult populations would be more efficient if the attracting and killing technique was incorporated in integrated pest management (IPM) programs,” the study said.
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