Non Technical Summary
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Many factors acting together, including concerns about worker safety, food safety, pesticide resistance and new regulations governing pesticides, have heightened grower awareness to reduce insecticide inputs and increase reliance on biopesticides. Foremost among the forces leading to change is the need to reduce input costs in order to maintain economic viability. Mating disruption is among the most effective biopesticides for managing various fruit crop pests including Oriental fruit moth. Although this tactic has proven to be a viable alternative to insecticides for some key pests, it is yet to be embraced as an economically viable alternative to insecticides in many fruit production regions. A major impediment to widespread adoption of disruption technologies are the number of devices needed, timing, physical application of the product, and the high product and application costs.OBJECTIVES: The major aim in developing the Tangler technology is to greatly improve the mating disruption application process, and substantially reduce its cost, especially the application cost, thereby increasing adoption.The Tangler system consists of a module loaded with pheromone and a launcher that enables the grower to rapidly apply numerous modules to the upper tree canopy. The module consists of a cap and a base each made of biodegradable plastic. The cap is attached to the base by a cotton string. During manufacturing the string and release vessel are fused to the cap. The string is inserted into the base to allow the cap and base to be assembled. One hundred Tangler capsules are coiled into 100 Tanglers and placed in a box clip. This clip is inserted into the launcher operated by compressed gas. As a result of the bola design, the propelled modules readily become tangled in the tree branches. It took a single applicator 30 minutes to treat a 1 ha orchard with 1000. Currently, registered hand-applied disruption formulations require 3-4 hours to treat a 1 ha orchard at this high rate. The greatly improved efficiency provided by Tangler OFM will mean that growers no longer will need to skimp on the number of dispensers applied because it is time consuming and labor intensive. Moreover, their dependence on labor to use mating disruption and the expense associated with the application will be substantially reduced.APPROACH: First, this research project will determine the efficacy of the Tangler OFM for season long control and the long term reduction of populations. Secondly, compare Tangler OFM to the commercially available competitor, NoMate OFM (Scentry Inc). Thirdly, clarify the optimal rate of Tangler OFM required to achieve mating disruption, long term population reduction and prevention of crop damage. Lastly, optimize Tangler OFM's membrane to achieve the release of all active ingredients for the duration of the OFM flight with emphasis on providing superior mating disruption.?COMMERCIALIZATION: The goal of this research will be to develop a highly efficient and effective mating disruption product for OFM that will prevent damage caused by this pest and increase grower adoption of this technology in organic and commercial fruit crops. Further development of this product will lead to a dual or triple dispenser which will include Codling moth and/or Oblique banded leafroller.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
216	1114	1130	100%

Knowledge Area
216 - Integrated Pest Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
1114 - Peach;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology;

Goals / Objectives
The major aim in developing the Tangler OFM technology is to greatly improve the application process, substantially reducing the application cost while supplying growers with an alternative to insecticides that provides excellent control of Oriental fruit moth. The anticipated outcome is an increase in adoption of this technology. Field trials conducted in 2011 indicated that the Tangler could be applied at a rate of one unit every 3-4 seconds using the launcher. Thus, RQI anticipates that use of the Tangler OFM would result in a 5-fold to 10- fold reduction in the time and labor required to apply mating disruption. We estimate that the labor cost of applying the Tangler at the rate of 500 dispensers/hectare would be less than $10 per hectare. The Tangler technology would allow growers that currently do not use mating disruption due to the high cost and labor requirements to adopt the control tactic for any insect such as OFM. It will also allow growers that are currently using it to cut their costs and reduce their reliance on the availability of labor in the spring.Many more growers would adopt mating disruption if the application was a less laborious process and the application costs, as well as the price of the dispensers, were reduced.

Project Methods
Objective 1 - Tangler OFM Membrane Efficiency Optimize Tangler OFM: Research will entail evaluating season-long release of OFM pheromone from multiple Tangler membrane formulations. Emission profiles for each formulation will be generated from studies conducted in Michigan where OFM is abundant. Tangler formulations to be evaluated will include the Tangler OFM Standard used in field trials and modified vessels that will be manufactured at different loading rates. Each location will have 100 each of the standard and experimental Tangler dispensers prior to the start of the first OFM flight of the season. The dispensers will be placed in orchards in locations approximating standard field application. Ten replicates of each formulation will be collected on day 14, 28, 60, 90, 120 and 150. They will be packaged with freezer packs and returned to RQI for analysis. Each unit will be individually weighed to determine pheromone loss over time.Objective 2 - Comparison of NoMate OFM to Tangler OFMField studies to compare the Tangler OFM to a grower standard will be conducted in 10-40-hectare commercial peach and apple orchards in Michigan. The study will be set up as a randomized complete block design. Each treatment plot will be 2 hectares in size. A minimum of a 60m buffer will be placed around each pheromone treated plot. The experiment will be comprised of 3 treatments replicated four times. The treatments will be, 1) Scentry OFM at a 500/ha, 2) Tangler OFM at 500/ha, and 3) a grower standard.Objective 3 - Dosage ResponseField studies to determine the optimal rate of the Tangler OFM dispensing system also will be conducted in 10-40-hectare commercial peach and apple orchards in Michigan. The study will be set up as a randomized complete block design. Each treatment plot will be 2 hectares in size. A minimum of a 60m buffer will be placed around each pheromone treated plot. If supplemental insecticides are warranted, all treatments within a given replicate will be treated the experiment will be comprised of four treatments replicated four times. The treatments will be as follows: 1) Tangler OFM applied at 75-100 dispensers per hectare, 2) Tangler OFM applied at 200 dispensers per hectare, 3) Tangler OFM applied at 300 dispensers per hectare, 4) and a non-treated grower standard.Statistical Analysis.Statistical analysis for all aspects of the study will be performed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Treatment differences will be separated using Fisher's least significant difference test at α < 0.05. Moth catch data will be transformed to ln x + l to normalize the data. Percent fruit and foliage injury will be arcsine transformed prior to ANOVA