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Climate change risk to pheromone application in pest management

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Abstract

Since the discovery of the first sex pheromone and the adoption of pheromone in pest management, the global pheromone market size has grown to reach USD 2.4 billion per year in 2019. This has enabled the development of environmentally friendly approaches that significantly reduce the application of pesticides. Recently, there have been reports of the failure of various commercial codlemone: (E,E)-8,10-dodecadien-1-ol formulations used for monitoring the apple pest codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.). This work was initiated to investigate factors behind the lack of efficacy of codlemone lure in the Northern Hemisphere (Germany) and Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand). We hypothesised that the observed failure could be due to two main factors: (a) a shift in the response of male codling moth to codlemone and (b) degradation of codlemone under field conditions that renders the lure less attractive. Field trial tests of various doses and blends containing minor pheromone compounds suggested no change in response of male codling moth. The addition of an antioxidant and a UV stabiliser to codlemone resulted in a significant increase in the number of males caught in Germany, but not in New Zealand. Mean maximum temperatures during the growing season since 2004 indicate a 3 °C increase to 35 °C in Germany, but just a 1.5 °C rise to 30 °C in New Zealand. Chemical analysis of the lures used in the field trials in Germany and New Zealand indicated more degradation products and reduced half-life of the lures in Germany compared with those in New Zealand. Heating codlemone lures to 32 °C significantly reduced the number of males caught in traps and increased the isomeric and chemical impurities of codlemone compared with unheated lures. Our data provide the first evidence that climate change affects pheromone molecule stability, thus reducing its biological efficacy. Our finding suggests that climate change could be a general problem for chemical communication and, therefore, could affect the integrity of natural ecosystems.

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Availability of data and material

Climatic datasets for both Germany and New Zealand are available from JG (upon request) and https://hortplus.metwatch.nz/ (paid subscription), respectively. Other data used in this study are also available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Research Science and Innovation and Plant & Food Research’s Capability Fund. The heaters for rubber septa were designed and built by Taylor Welsh. Linnaeus University, Sweden, is thanked for financial support to CRU. MR and NG were supported by funds from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) under the innovation support programme number 281B204316.

Funding

This work was funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Research Science and Innovation and Plant & Food Research’s Capability Fund. Linnaeus University, Sweden, is thanked for financial support to CRU. MR and NG were supported by funds from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Gerald Street, Lincoln, 7608, New Zealand

    Ashraf M. El-Sayed

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Linnaeus University, 392 31, Kalmar, Sweden

    Suresh Ganji & C. Rikard Unelius

  3. Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection in Fruit Crops and Viticulture, Julius Kühn-Institut, Schwabenheimer Str. 101, 69221, Dossenheim, Germany

    Jürgen Gross, Natalie Giesen & Margit Rid

  4. The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Hawke’s Bay, Private Bag, 1401, Havelock North, 4157, New Zealand

    Peter L. Lo & Anna Kokeny

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  1. Ashraf M. El-Sayed
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Contributions

Ashraf El-Sayed, Rikard Unelius, and Jürgen Gross contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Ashraf El-Sayed, Suresh Ganji, Natalie Giesen, Margit Rid, Jürgen Gross, Rikard Unelius, Peter Lo, and Anna Kokeny. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ashraf El-Sayed and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ashraf M. El-Sayed.

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Communicated by: William Benjamin Walker

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The original online version of this article was revised due to (1.) The first sentence in the Abstract sections that reads: “Since of the first sex pheromone and the adoption of pheromone in pest management, the global pheromone market size has grown to reach USD 2.4 billion per year in 2019.” should have been “Since the discovery of the first sex pheromone and the adoption of pheromone in pest management, the global pheromone market size has grown to reach USD 2.4 billion per year in 2019.” (2.) Figures 5 and 6 x-axes were changed “Temprature” to “Temperature”.

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El-Sayed, A.M., Ganji, S., Gross, J. et al. Climate change risk to pheromone application in pest management. Sci Nat 108, 47 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-021-01757-7

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