Cabbage loopers, control

Behavioral and Hormonal Chemicals. Sex pheromones, which attract pests to traps, are used effectively to control some insect pests, like the grape berry moth (46) and cabbage looper. With other Insect pests, sex pheromones have been effectively used to monitor the size of pest insect populations to determine when pesticide treatments should be made. 

Other plant-feeding insects, such as the cabbage looper, have piled one resistance upon another, so that we must look to pheromones and chemosterilants for their control. The western corn rootworm has now joined the onion maggot in going OP-resistant. Resistance problems on pests of rice in Japan are becoming as severe as those on cotton in the Americas. 

Methamidophos is an insecticide and acaricide for control of chewing and sucking insects and spider mites such as aphids, flea beetles, whiteflies, cabbage loopers, thrips, cutworms, Colorado potato beetles, armyworms, mites, leafhoppers, and others on vegetables, cotton, potatoes, and fruits. It has an oral LD50 in rats of 250-500 mg/kg. 

Ryania is made from the ground roots of the tropical shrub Ryania speciosa. The active principle of ryania is the alkaloid ryanodine (C25H35NOu). Ryania is used for controlling aphids, cabbage loopers, Colorado potato beetles, diamondback moths, cucumber beetles, leafhoppers, corn earworms, European corn borers, codling moths, citrus thrips, and so on. Its oral LD30 in rats is 1200 mg/kg so it is practically nontoxic to mammals. 

Protection Offered Gardeners report that bug juice will control cabbage loopers and Colorado potato beetle and Mexican bean beetle larvae. Larger pests are easier to collect than small, fast-moving types. 

Mitchell (597) has discussed the feasibility of using multicomponent formulations for control of several important pests of field crops. Hendricks et al. (600) showed that a mixture of looplure (622) and virelure (623, 624) were compatible and caught the cabbage looper (T. ni), the soybean looper (Pseudoplusia includens), and the tobacco budworm (H. virescens) on the same traps. It seems likely that pesticide applications to field crops could be greatly reduced by means of pheromone-baited monitoring traps, and such efforts will undoubtedly become a part of the integrated pest management projects now established by the Extension Service of the USDA. 

Another company (624, 625) supplies a controlled release dispenser, which is a three-layer plastic laminated sheet consisting of a bottom protective layer, a middle pheromone reservoir layer, and a top permeable layer through which the pheromone diffuses. The sheet can be cut into ribbons and applied over an area. Formulations have been field tested on a number of insect pests gypsy moth, pink bollworm, peachtree borer, lesser peach tree borer, soybean looper, cabbage looper, European elm bark beetle, tobacco budworm, fall armyworm, tussock moth, eastern spruce budworm, and Mediterranean fruit fly. 

Protection Offered You can use potato starch dextrin to control aphids, spider mites, thrips, and whiteflies. It also controls powdery mildew on cucumbers. Other uses will likely be recommended once a commercial product reaches the market. Flour is a good control for larger pests like imported cabbage-worms and loopers on cabbage family crops. 

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