Abstract

Potato tuber moth (PTM), Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller), widely world distributed, is one of the most serious insect pest attacking potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.). Larvae develop in foliage and tubers of potato causing direct losses of edible product. Chemicals treatment to control this pest have shown limited efficacy, especially when larvae is under the soil. The utilization of synthetic pheromones as a tool that interferes with insects mating had been widely demonstrated in numerous moth and others insects species. With the objective to evaluate the efficacy of different doses of pheromone per trap in PTM males captures for its future utilization as a mass trapping technique, two experiments in a complete randomized blocks design, were carried out at Valle del Elqui, Coquimbo ,egión, Chile, during the summer season 2003-2004, and spring 2004. Doses of 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 mg and 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 mg of PTM sex pheromone mixture (E4-Z7 Tridecadienil acetate, and E4-Z7-Z10 Tridecatrienil acetate at rate 1:1.5) per trap were evaluated. Results showed that pheromone´s dispensers loaded with the rates of 0.2 and 0.5 mg, captured the larger numbers of PTM males per trap. With the optimization of the pheromone rate per trap, studies will continue to propose PTM mass trapping technique, a non chemical method of control, environmentally safe