Production of traps and attractants
Action A1 will last 3 and 1/2 years and during its duration all the necessary traps and commodities will be purchased and attractants will be produced-synthesized in order to be used for the following demonstration actions. Thus, the action will continuously feed all the following demonstration actions (i.e. B1 and B2) with the necessary amount of the innovative attractant and with necessary number of traps. For this, synthesis of almost 200 Kg, depending on the results of the efficacy test of the innovative attractant Biodelear, will take place before and during the fruiting season of the 2014 and at the start of 2015 (January, February, March, April and May) in order to be ready for the fruiting seasons of 2014, 2015, and 2016 as well as synthesis of Biodelear during the years 2015 and 2016 and in the beginning of the 2017 in order to be ready for the fruiting seasons of the years 2017 and 2018. All the necessary traps and commodities (commercial attractants and other) will be purchased on 2014 and at the beginning of 2015.
Moreover, tests will be carried out in order to test the efficacy of the innovative attractant Biodelear and for this, three quantities of Biodelear will be examined as regards their best performance in the citrus orchard and the power of attraction of female insects versus attraction of beneficial insects and duration. The three different quantities of the innovative attractant Biodelear will be 17g, 51g and 85g with 10 traps of International Pheromones (IP) Mc Phail-type for each quantity and a surfactant of 10% of propylene glycol as a killing device; each kind of quantity would be positioned in a randomly way in the citrus orchard. All the traps will be hung in the same pattern, 10 meter apart and at eye level. The traps would be checked every week and all the flies would be counted, sexed, identified and removed. The test would be carried out for 20 weeks (July - August - September - October and November of 2014) and the outcome of this test will determine which quantity will be used for the actions B1 and B2.
Methods employed: The Biodelear will be synthesised following the method developed and patented by the coordinator of the project. Dr V. G. Mavraganis. Briefly, the method is the following: One pot reaction between fructose and urea in the presence of water (in a ratio per weight 3 parts of fructose: 1 part of water: and 1 part of urea), where urea is added in small amounts in the solution of the dissolved fructose to achieve the Maillard reaction product named Biodelear, which is manageable and ready for use.
A detailed plan will be developed, early on during this action, regarding the specific needs of the pilot areas of actions B1 and B2, however after the selection of the three pilot areas of the project with the specific needs, such as isolated orchards, manageability and previous pesticide protection by the conventional way, will be used for the function of the project. The plan will assist the scientists to produce the appropriate number of traps, to feed the demonstration actions in time and to perform all preparatory activities, which will assist the development of the Integrated Management Strategy for early warning of the augmentation of the medfly population.
SSIA, UTH and AUTH will cooperate for the implementation of this action, however the responsible beneficiary will be SSIA while UTH and AUTH will be responsible of the completion of the efficacy tests.
Constraints and assumptions:
No specific constrains are expected since soil sampling and analyses are procedures in which SSIA has many years of experience. Similarly, UTH and AUTH have a lot of many years of experience in monitoring med fly population, in estimating the biological diversity in the ecosystem and the fruit infestation with the use of conventional practices.
Beneficiary responsible for implementation: SSIA
Responsibilities in case several beneficiaries are implicated: AUTH, UTH
Expected results (quantitative information when possible):
Determination of the optimum amount of the innovative attractant to be used during the demonstration actions (Report)
Indicators of progress:
1. Synthesis of 100 Kg to 200Kg of attractant Biodelear depending on the results from the efficacy tests (5,5% of the total Biodelear from June to August of 2014) (17,2% of the total Biodelear produced until the December of 2014) (77,7% of the total Biodelear produced until the March of 2017)
2. The result of the efficacy test will be known and estimated by the end of December of 2014
3. Purchasing of the following items: 1200 Mc Phail Traps, commercial Biolure attractant about 100 pieces, commercial Capilure about 200 pieces for the annihilation of the male med fly insects and the appropriate reagents for the synthesis of the attractant Biodelear (The above will be purchased and during the first, second year and third year of the project 2014, 2015 and 2016)
4. Preparation of the traps to be ready for their use (5,5% prepared from June to August of 2014) (17,2% prepared until the December of 2014) (77,7% prepared until the March of 2017)
Project Timetable <- PREV ΝΕΧΤ->Action A2: Preparatory monitoring of the demonstration areas
