SPRAYING CODLING MOTHS IN ORCHARD - 21st CENTURY STYLE!
Orchards are still treated to kill Codling moths but with a virus which kills off the larvae, using the sex drive of the Codling Moth to control this major fruit pest. Because the virus breaks down in sunlight and has to be sprayed and resprayed (a very expensive business) scientists have devised a very cunning way of infecting the moths with it. Special traps are hung in the fruit trees containing the virus protected from the effects of rain, frost and sunlight. The male Codling moths are attracted to these traps by a chemical pheromone very like the ones the female moths produce to attract males to mate with them. The males get the virus on their bodies then fly off to mate with proper female moths, spreading the disease to the females and so onto the eggs they will lay.
Now try to answer these questions
- How does the Codling Moth damage fruit trees?
- What were the reasons that DDT spraying of orchards for Codling Moth was stopped? (at least 2)
- Why are the male moths attracted to the traps hanging in the trees?
- When they visit the traps they do not find what they came for! What do they pick up from the traps instead?
- How does treating male moths with the virus affect the eggs and larvae of the Codling Moth?