EVALUATION OF POTENTIAL OF STERILE INSECT TECHNIQUE IN CONTROLLING ECTOMYELOIS CERATONIAE ZELLER

Iran is the leading producer and exporter of pomegranate in the world. The losses are high due to Ectomyelois ceratoniae Zeller which acts as an important agent of decreasing quality and quantity of pomegranate in Iran. This pest is very active in all pomegranate growing areas of Iran such as Eyvan key, Saveh, Yazd, Shiraz, Esfehan and Kashan. According to annual thermal, humidity conditions and cultivars the losses vary annually. The application of pesticide is not practical and the other methods like biological, mechanical and agronomical alone cannot be effective. Application of sterile insect technique is a method that is used for a few insects under special conditions. This research has been done for primary evaluation on the control of Ectomyelois ceratoniae in the laboratory in a completely randomized block design as follows: pest larval stages were collected from pomegranate orchards in Saveh and reared in laboratory conditions (28±2°C, 60±5 RH, 14 hours light) on artificial diet. Pupa at 1-2 and 3-4 pupa were separately irradiated at dose range 0-160 Gy. The adults after eclosion were crossed according to the following situations (irradiated males×natural females, irradiated females×natural males and irradiated male × irradiated females) under 4 replications. After counting the laid eggs and determining the egg hatching the results revealed that, the best formula was crossing irradiated males×irradiated females and the best controlling dose for 1-2 days pupa was 120 Gy and 3-4 days was 160 Gy.