ISCA Technologies, Inc. (Riverside, CA) is pleased to announce the successful synthesis of the citrus leafminer (CLM) pheromone, and the subsequent manufacture and commercialization of the pheromone lure. The citrus leafminer Phyllocnistis citrella, primarily an Asian pest, was first discovered in Florida in 1993. By 1995, the citrus leafminer was discovered in Texas, Central America, western Mexico, and several Caribbean islands. It arrived in southern California (Imperial County) in 2000 and is gradually moving its way northward.

Pheromone based control strategies 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 pheromone lure is sold under the product code and name IT 203 Iscalure-Citrella. Since the launch of the Iscalure-Citrella, it has become the de facto standard for CLM monitoring and mass trapping. Customers who have purchased the Iscalure-Citrella include nurseries, gardeners, distributors of garden and citrus grower products, leading CLM researchers, University of California Cooperative Extensions, University of Florida Extension, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

View the Iscalure-Citrella product brochure here.

Because scale-up synthesis was cost-effective and proof-of-concept field testing in 2006 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 CLM control. Consequently, ISCA researchers are collaborating with CLM researchers in the U.S. and Brazil to develop and test mating disruption and attract & kill products formulated with ISCA’s proprietary controlled release matrix called SPLAT (Specialized Pheromone and Lure Application Technology), and determine its optimal field application metrics and methodologies.

Dr Agenor Mafra-Neto, CEO of ISCA Technologies says: “The CLM pheromone is regarded as a very complex molecule to synthesize. We believe that we are one of only two entities worldwide that have undertaken the scientific and commercial risk to perform the R&D, and subsequently successfully synthesized the pheromone at a purity, cost and scale that is scientifically and economically feasible for the development of pheromone based CLM management.”

Citrus leafminer leaf damage

Citrus leafminers in ISCA Delta Trap