Essential oils as vespid wasp repellents: Implications for their use as a management strategy

YOSSEN, MARÍA B.; LOZADA, MARIANA; KUPERMAN, MARCELO N.; GONZÁLEZ, SILVIA; GASTALDI, BRUNO; BUTELER, MICAELA

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019

0931-2048

Recently, plant‐based repellents have been proposed as a potential alternative toclassic pesticides against pest wasps, in certain scenarios. Here, the repellent effectof Dysphania multifida essential oil and one of its main terpenoid components, α‐terpinene,were tested under field conditions with natural populations of wasps inPatagonia Argentina. D. multifida essential oil (paico), as well as α‐terpinene, repelledV. germanica wasps in the field. A strong avoidance of food baits treated with the essentialoil or α‐terpinene was observed in choice and no‐choice tests. In no‐choicetests, the time it took wasps to arrive at the bait was significantly greater in treatedbaits than in control baits. Also, the total number of arriving wasps in 30 min wassignificantly greater in untreated baits in comparison with treated baits, under similarenvironmental conditions and wasp density. As the wasps? flight season progressed,wasp density and motivation for proteinaceous food sources increased. This was evidencedby a greater total number of wasps in untreated baits with time. On the contrary,the number of wasps in treated baits remained low throughout the peak season.Both the paico essential oil and the α‐terpinene act as powerful repellents for V. germanicawasps, generating an avoidance response to treated food sources. Thus, thesecompounds have potential to be used as repellents to prevent wasps? approaches andforaging, when applied in close proximity to a food source