Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Baits – attractants – or lures
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-12
2002-08-27
Dees, Jose′ G. (Department: 1616)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Baits, attractants, or lures
C043S107000, C424S405000, C424S409000, C424S410000, C514S023000, C514S159000, C514S160000, C514S163000, C514S164000, C514S532000, C514S699000, C514S717000, C514S718000, C514S730000, C514S731000, C514S763000, C514S769000, C514S770000, C514S772000, C514S772300, C514S772400, C514S777000, C514S778000, C514S781000, C514S937000, C514S949000, C514S950000, C514S957000, C514S970000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06440406
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel composition and its use as an attractant for male, female or both sexes of scarab insect pests.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are about 2,000 genera and 25,000 species in the beetle family Scarabaeidae in the world. In the U.S. and Canada alone, there are 1,395 and 135 genera. If the number of species and genera in the Americas is considered, the number would be considerably higher. One of the two groups in this family, the Pleurosticti, are called chafers. Adult chafers are strictly plant feeders on stems or roots, nectar, sap, or juice of ripening fruits and vegetables, fresh leaves, and flower nectar and pollen. These feeding habits lead to damage of ornamental and food crops. Adult females lay eggs primarily on the ground and the larvae, which are soil-dwelling white grubs, feed on living roots and can be very destructive in the urban and agricultural environments. Because of these soil dwelling habits, larvae are very difficult to control. Control efforts are then best directed at the adults before or while laying eggs, or the newly hatched larvae before they become established deeper in the soil. Appropriate timing of control efforts therefore requires real time information that can be derived from adult monitoring using traps on the level of adult activity. Efficacy of control measures would also be enhanced by directing these at the adults to preclude the need for direct treatment of areas in which eggs have been laid or larvae are hatching from the eggs. Thus, conventional control practices have usually involved high volume broadcast applications of insecticides on all infested areas. This trend has resulted in major concerns for environmental contamination and food safety among consumers.
Alternative control strategies involving the use of attract and kill technologies or attracticides, i.e., feeds/baits which are attractive and optionally toxic to the target insect species, for the adults have advantages over conventional practices for managing insect species. The availability of effective attracticides at action sites may have good potential for killing adults before they can disperse and reproduce in habitats. The successful development of attracticides and incorporation of this technology into adult management strategies will permit the reduction of insect pest problems over large areas, while substantially reducing the total use of synthetic pesticides and exposure of human foods to pesticide contamination. The development of effective attractants/attracticides will also be useful in monitoring populations of insect pests.
Various natural and synthetic attractants have been used with some success in attracticidal formulations to control and manage other scarab pest species. A review of sex pheromones and plant kairomones which have been investigated as attractants for a variety of different scarabs has been provided by Leal (1998, Chemical Ecology of Phytophagous Scarab Beetles, Annual Review of Entomology, 43:39-61). However, despite these advances, attractants effective for many agronomically important scarabs have yet to be developed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
We have now developed compositions which are effective as attractants for a number of economically important scarabs. This composition includes a mixture of effective amounts of one or more of the volatile compounds phenylacetaldehyde, methyl-2-methoxybenzoate, methyl salicylate, 2-phenylethanol, and limonene. The present invention also provides methods for a reduction in scarab species numbers or for their elimination, which includes attracting the insect species with the attractant composition. In the preferred embodiment, the attractant composition is used to pull the adult scarabs from the surrounding areas whereupon they may then be exposed to a lethal food source or other lethal preparation containing an insecticide, entomopathogen or other agent, possibly mixed with a feeding stimulant, on which the responding adults will feed or with which they will effectively make contact.
In accordance with this discovery, it is an object of the present invention to provide a composition effective as an attractant to scarabs.
Another object of the invention is to provide traps and controlled-release formulations containing the attractant composition.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method of reducing or preventing plant damage due to scarab species using the attractant composition in combination with a feeding stimulant and insecticide or with other mortality agents such as an entomopathogen which might not require ingestion.
Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following description.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The attractant compositions of the present invention are effective in attracting and controlling a number of agronomically important adult insects of the family Scarabaeidae (within the Order Coleoptera), commonly referred to as scarabs or scarab beetles. Scarabs of particular importance, which are attracted to the compositions, include those within the genera Phyllophaga, Cotinis, Diplotaxis, Cyclocephala, and Macrodactylus. Without being limited thereto, it is envisioned that the attractants of this invention may be used to attract and control species within these genera, including:
Phyllophaga anxia, P. rugosa, P. crinita, P. congrua, P. crassissima, P. obsoleta, P. ambigenus, P. brevidens, P. ravida, P. rugipennis, P. setifera, P. tumulosa, P. vetula, Cotinis nitida
(the green June beetle),
C. mutabilis, Macrodactylus subspinosus
(the rose chafer),
M. mexicanus, M. lineatus
, Diplotaxis species,
Cyclocephala comata
, and
C. lunulata
. Furthermore, the attractant compositions of this invention may be effective for attracting both sexes of adult scarabs. Since female beetles are the reproductive sex capable of laying eggs, the capture or kill of females could serve as a major tool in reducing succeeding populations.
Compounds effective for use as attractants herein include at least one, preferably two of the plant volatile components phenylacetaldehyde, methyl-2-methoxybenzoate, methyl salicylate, 2-phenylethanol, and limonene. However, while compositions of only one or two of these volatiles are attractive, generally efficacy is significantly improved by inclusion of three, four or preferably all five of these volatiles. Suitable formulations may be prepared from these volatiles in isolated or impure form. However, as a practical matter, it is expected that substantially pure volatiles will be formulated with an inert carrier (i.e., a carrier that is non-reactive with the above-mentioned volatiles) for use as an insect attractant composition. The practitioner skilled in the art will also recognize that these volatiles may be formulated or combined in a single composition or they may be provided in separate compositions, and they may be in liquid or solid form. It is understood that if formulated separately, the compositions should be positioned adjacent to one another during use. Liquid carriers for use herein include but are not limited to water or organic solvents, such as polyols, esters, methylene chloride, alcohol (such as C
1
-C
4
alcohol) or vegetable oil, although vegetable oils and alcohols are preferred. Suitable vegetable oils include olive oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, soybean oil, mineral oil, as well as methylated forms of these oils, or mixtures thereof. Aromatic and linear hydrocarbon solvents may also be included. The active ingredient mixture may also be incorporated in a solid substrate, such as clays, diatomaceous earth, silica, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polyurethanes, ureaformaldehyde condensates, and starches. Use of sintered polyethylene (either low or high voids) is particularly preferred. Other useful solid support matrices include expanded vermiculite and paraffinic or bees wax.
The amounts and concentrations of the volati
Crocker Robert L.
Lopez, Jr. Juan D.
Shaver Ted N.
Choi Frank
Deck Randall E.
Dees Jose′ G.
Fado John D.
Silverstein M. Howard
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