ISCA Technologies, Inc. (Riverside, CA) is pleased to announce the successful R&D establishing the synthetic route and the scale-up synthesis of high purity commercial batches of the carob moth pheromone mimic. Because scale-up synthesis was cost-effective and proof-of-concept field testing in 2005 was successful, ISCA has achieved an important milestone and prerequisite for the further R&D of environmentally friendly and species specific monitoring, mating disruption and attract & kill strategies for carob moth control.

View the Iscalure-Ceratoniae product brochure here.

This important R&D milestone has been funded in part by a competitive grant award from the USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Semiochemical based control strategies often have many advantages over traditional insecticides : they are environmentally friendly, they are species specific which minimizes the impact on non-target species, they do not cause insect resistance build-up, and they have the potential to reduce the use of wide spectrum insecticides.

The carob moth Ectomyelois ceratoniae was discovered infesting dates in California in 1982 and is now recognized as the most economically damaging pest of the high value U.S. date industry, causing over $1 million in damage annually. In southern California where almost all the date orchards of the U.S. are located, 22,000 tons of dates are produced annually, with a value of more than $25 million. Around the world, the carob moth also damages many other high value nut and fruit commodities such as almond, pistachio and macadamia, as well as pomegranate, stone, and pome fruits.

Dr Agenor Mafra-Neto, CEO of ISCA says: “We are very pleased about the success of our carob moth pheromone mimic synthesis. Over the past decade or so, many other parties have attempted to synthesize the pheromone but were unsuccessful because they were not able to achieve the requisite level of pheromone purity, or were unable to scale-up the synthesis of highly pure lab samples to commercial quantities. This is a wonderful testament of the caliber of ISCA’s organic chemists and chemical ecologists. As far as we know, we are the only company in the world that can produce the carob moth pheromone mimic in high purity commercial quantities that meet the requirements for semiochemical based control strategies.” With the successful synthesis of the pheromone mimic, ISCA has been contracted by independent research entities and grower associations to synthesize the pheromone mimic in 2005 and again in 2006; and it has also launched and successfully commercialized the Iscalure-Ceratoniae (ISCA product number IT600), the world’s first and only commercially available species specific lure for the carob moth.

R&D will continue for the 2006 season and beyond to determine the optimal metrics and methodologies for the field application of mating disruption and attract & kill strategies. These include, among others, the development of matrix technology to protect and control the release of this labile semiochemical; dispensing technologies and release rate studies; monitoring tools and protocols using carob moth pheromone mimic traps; field application methods, tools, density and timing. ISCA formulates the carob moth pheromone mimic with its proprietary controlled release matrix SPLAT (Specialized Pheromone and Lure Application Technology), which has been successfully used for other lepidopteran pheromones such as oriental fruit moth, codling moth, pink bollworm, bonagota, and more. Various SPLAT carob moth pheromone mimic formulations will be field tested to determine the optimal SPLAT formulation. Carob moth population and damage levels are monitored during the field studies to determine the extent and duration of carob moth control strategies.

ABOUT THE USDA SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH PROGRAM

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) makes grants that are competitively awarded to qualified small businesses for the purpose of supporting high quality research proposals containing advanced concepts related to important scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture that could lead to significant public benefit if the research is successful. The objectives of the SBIR Program are to stimulate technological innovations in the private sector, strengthen the role of small businesses in meeting Federal research and development needs, increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from USDA-supported research and development efforts, and foster and encourage participation by women-owned and socially and economically disadvantaged small business firms in technological innovations.