Mating disruption in French vineyards: Success, difficulties and prospects

Mating disruption (MD) in crop protection has a rather long history since the first insect pheromone identifications (honeybee queen pheromone in 1958 and bombykol, 1959), the 1964 pioneering papers of Wright in Science and Nature and the very first large-scale trials in Australian peach production (Kennedy 1975). Mating disruption against grapevine moth started 40 years ago and was rapidly extended to several European countries. Currently over 10 % (80,000 ha) of French vineyards are treated with MD, a proportion in constant increase in the last 5 years. In its principle, MD uses an airborne ‘infochemical’ (the synthetic major compound of the sex pheromone) at a concentration in the air above behavioral threshold to inhibit the several patterns used by males to encounter females (detection, orientation towards the female source, courtship). This control technique is proven globally efficient and is more and more popular in the French vineyard; however, efficiency failures may occur. In the present talk we argue that the MD technique could be improved by a better control of the pheromone release in the air. Reaching an optimal concentration and a homogeneous odor cloud above the crop during the whole growing season is challenging and may become critical in some environmental situations. Several factors that may affect pheromone concentration in the air will be presented and discussed las well as research progress towards infochemical sensors in the air.