Efficacy of mass trapping and insecticides to control Tuta absoluta in Tunisia

Since its first detection in Tunisia in 2008, the tomato pinworm, Tuta absoluta, has become a serious problem to tomato crops by causing heavy yield losses. The aim of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of some actives ingredients, commonly used by Tunisian farmers, under laboratory and greenhouse conditions in controlling T. absoluta larvae. We also tested the role of mass trapping as control method for T. absoluta while performing two greenhouse trials: one to test the most effective number of pheromone traps to be used and the second evaluating the combination of insecticides and pheromone traps. Our study demonstrated that the product combining abamectin and chlorantraniliprole was the most effective 2 h after the treatment in laboratory trials. Moreover, this study indicated that the dose of two sex pheromone traps/greenhouse was the most effective compared to the other tested dose. Also, mass trapping alone (2 sex pheromone traps/greenhouse) was not effective in reducing larval populations: flubendiamid and cyromazin caused 96 and 77% larval mortality, respectively.