Szexferomonnal bogarak ellen is? Az elso hazai bogar szexferomon csapda kifejlesztese az amerikai kukoricabogarra (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte).

Plant protection experts in Hungary have so far most frequently had the opportunity to apply sex pheromone traps suitable for monitoring and forecast of lepidopteran pests. However similar scents assist reproductive communication not only in Lepidoptera, but also in other insect orders. For example, in representatives of several families of Coleoptera, where many important agricultural pests belong to, it is known that communication between sexes is promoted by long-range attractant sex pheromones. Based on our earlier experience gained in studies on lepidopteran pheromones we set the aim of developing also sex pheromone traps usable in agricultural practice for selected pest Coleoptera. The chrysomelid pest western corn rootworm (D. v. virgifera) was chosen as the subject of the first project. This choice was prompted by the fact that this pest was accidentally introduced into Yugoslavia at the beginning of the nineties, and it is expected that the pest would spread into other countries of Europe. Sex pheromone traps would be appropriate tools for both detection of the occurrence and monitoring of the spread of this pest in Hungary. The chemical structure of the sex pheromone of the pest was elucidated by a team of U.S. scientists led by J.H. Tumplinson in the middle of the eighties. The active pheromone ingredient was synthetised at the Budapest laboratory, was formulated on rubber septa, and two sticky trap designs baited with the septa were compared for capturing corn rootworm males in the vicinity of the pest's original site of introduction in Yugoslavia. Our traps captured large numbers of male corn rootworms during July-September 1995. Regular catches were observed even in October. Panel traps generally performed better than triangular traps. This was especially clear at sites with low population density. Based on our results we suggest that panel traps baited with the pheromone are more suitable for detection of occurrence of corn rootworms. Although baits exposed for over a month in the field still do regularly catch, it would be advisable to change monitoring traps to new ones each 4-6 weeks for reliable detection. In 1996 traps are made available to farmers in Hungary in the farmwork of a consultary service at the Plant Protection Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest.