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- 2005
- Winter
- Monitoring of Pheromone Traps and Regulatory Actions
Mexican rice borer pheromone trap at a rice field at Jacko Garrett’s farm in Brazoria County, Texas. (Photo by Gene Reagan)
Tad Hardy, T. Eugene Reagan and M.O. Way
During the winter of 1999, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) entered into a compliance agreement with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) concerning a pheromone trapping protocol that would allow sugarcane produced in Southeast Texas to be transported to mills in Louisiana for processing. The compliance agreement specifies that any Mexican rice borer found in Southeast Texas would automatically initiate a 1-mile radius quarantine on sugarcane around any trap capture or larval discovery location.
On Sept. 2 and 20, and again on Oct. 2, 2004, Mexican rice borer moths were observed in two research project traps (a total of six moths) near Winnie in Chambers County, Texas.
Until the recent find, monitoring conducted by the TDA near Southeast Texas sugarcane during the summer and fall employed 10 to 24 pheromone traps annually (since 1999). The LDAF program conducted in Western Louisiana and adjacent to sugar mills processing Texas sugarcane initiated their annual study with 12 pheromone traps in 1999, increasing to 22 traps in 2003 and 40 traps in 2004. Traps are deployed adjacent to both sugarcane and rice fields and sugar mills. They are maintained in the field until harvest or processing is complete.
Bucket traps with a male pheromone attractant lure suspended above the bucket funnel are used in the program. Traps are hung from metal posts and checked several times each month.
Read related article:
Slowing Down the Mexican Rice Borer
(This article appeared in the winter 2005 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.)
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture