Brewers yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, enhances attraction of two invasive yellowjackets (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) to dried fruit and fruit powder.

TAMARA BABCOCK; REGINE GRIES; JOHN BORDEN; LUIS PALMERO; ANALIA MATTIACCI; MAITÉ MASCIOCCHI; JUAN C CORLEY; GERHARD GRIES

JOURNAL OF INSECT SCIENCE

UNIV ARIZONA

Lugar: Arizona; Año: 2017 vol. 17 p. 1 - 7

1536-2442

The German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica, and common yellowjacket, Vespula vulgaris, are native and invasive pests of significant economic, environmental, and medical importance in many countries. There is a need for the development and improvement of attractive baits that can be deployed in traps to capture and kill these wasps in areas where they are a problem. Yellowjackets are known to feed on fermenting fruit, but this resource is seldom considered as a bait due to its ephemeral nature and its potential attractiveness to non-target species. We analyzed the headspace volatiles of dried fruit and fruit powder baits with and without Brewer?s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and we field tested these baits for their attractiveness to yellowjackets in Argentina. The addition of yeast to fruit powder enriched the volatile composition. Dried fruit and fruit powder baits on their own were hardly attractive to yellowjackets, but the addition of yeast improved their attractiveness by 9- to 50-fold and surpassed the attractiveness of a commercial heptyl butyrate-based wasp lure. We suggest that further research be done to test additional varieties and species of yeasts. A dried fruit or fruit powder bait in combination with yeast could become a useful tool in the management of yellowjackets.