Laboratory and Field Evaluation of Controlled Release Dispensers Containing Grandlure, the Pheromone of the Boll Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)1

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Abstract
Dispensers containing the aggregation pheromone grand lure are extensively used in traps for detecting, monitoring, and suppressing the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis Boheman, in areawide management programs and for monitoring on a field-by-field basis. The effective period of pheromone release from these dispensers is substantially influenced by the nature of the dispenser formulation and by temperature and other variables. A laboratory procedure was developed to measure the relative release rates of grand lure from candidate dispensing systems under conditions of constant temperature and air flow. Release rates were found to increase by as much as 13 times as the temperature was raised from 28 to 62. Field studies were conducted on 12 dispenser formulations to measure insect capture as a function of dispenser aging time over 3-wk periods; emission rates and residual grand lure contents were measured on similarly aged dispensers. A laminate with 400-μm outer layers and the cigarette filter gave the best overall performance. Laboratory-measured release rates correlated with boll weevil captures (Test 1; linear regression analysis with r2 = 0.83). Accelerated aging of dispensers in an oven set at 54 gave similar profiles of release rate versus time as did the field-aged dispensers; relative performance of dispenser formulations can be determined in the laboratory as a preliminary evaluation before costly and lengthy field tests are undertaken.

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