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Mating disruption of Cadra cautella (Walk.) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) using its sex pheromone components, (Z, E)-9,12-tetradecadienyl acetate (ZETA) and (Z)-9-tetradecadien-1-yl acetate (ZTA), is successful in its population management. In addition, botanical oils have extensively been investigated in stored product pest management, but the effect of synthetic sex pheromones on the mating of C. cautella in the presence of plant volatiles is still unknown. Spinosad is used in food facilities as a contact insecticide but, if C. cautella larvae burrow into food, they may escape from spinosad. Importantly, the impact of spinosad on burrowing ability of C. cautella remains unknown. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the effects of sex pheromone components ZETA and ZTA in the presence of botanical oils on the mating of C. cautella and the burrowing ability of C. cautella larvae in different types of flour treated with spinosad. In the first study, male and female moths were introduced into the cubicle having botanical oils and pheromone components. The mating status of female moths and male moth attraction to the trap was determined. The control experiments had only the botanical oils or pheromones. In the second study, burrowing ability of C. cautella larvae through different flour types was evaluated over 10 d. The flour was sprayed with spinosad (treatments) or water (controls). The mating success was higher with botanical oils alone but declined with exposure to pheromone either alone or combined with botanical oils. No differences in male attraction to traps were observed in botanical only, pheromone only or pheromone + botanical oil treatments. The burrowing of C. cautella larvae differed with flour type and spinosad altered burrowing ability. Thus, we conclude that the mating and burrowing of C. cautella is influenced by its pheromone and by exposure to botanicals and spinosad.

The number of introductions of alien insect has been increasing in the last decades, primarily transported in shipping containers. The attraction of light of different wavelengths (white, infrared, ultraviolet, and red) applied on sticky traps was tested for the development of new traps for hitchhiker insects. The addition of entomological glue and insecticide on the trap was also tested. Tests were conducted on Cadra cautella Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (Diptera: Drosophilidae), Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), and Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) and released inside a shipping container. In the first test, one light color at a time was tested setting eight traps in the container, one for each possible combination of the variables: light on or off, glue added or not, and insecticide sprayed or not. In the second, five traps were used, all of them coated with the entomological glue: one for each light color and one with light off as control. In all the single color tests (except for infrared), light-on traps captured more, except for T. castaneum that was not attracted to white. In the multi-color test, C. cautella showed no preference among white, ultraviolet, or red; Drosophila melanogaster preferred ultraviolet and white over red; and beetles had a much greater attraction to red. Lastly, the stronger entomological glue improved catches of beetles, whereas insecticides did not. In conclusion, results suggest a possible application of sticky light traps against hitchhiker insects and further studies should verify if the simultaneous use of different light colors can improve the trap performance and does not act as a repellent.

Cadra cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is a pest in barn, and its eggs are often utilized as an alternative prey or as hosts for mass production of insect predators and parasitoids. To aid in developing a mass-rearing system for C. castella, the suitability of using an artificial diet based on brown rice flour and whole brown rice was compared using the age-stage, 2-sex life table. Compared with those reared on brown rice, the insects reared on an artificial diet had a shorter preadult period (32.08 vs 37.38 d), higher fecundity (468.14 vs 356.20 eggs/female), greater intrinsic rate of increase (0.1509 vs 0.1145 d–1), and higher net reproductive rate (199.28 vs 103.52 offspring). Small populations were required to rear the moth on an artificial diet to achieve the same daily production of C. cautella. Still, the food expense was only 60.2% of that of C. cautella reared on brown rice. Approximately 99.44% of the eggs in each rearing procedure could be supplied as alternative prey for predators, with the remainder served to maintain the colonies for subsequent batches. Only eggs laid within 6 d would be utilized to ensure the high quality of alternative prey for the mass production of predacious bugs. Additionally, a multifunctional device was designed for moth rearing and egg collection, reducing labor input and minimizing health risks for workers coping with inhaled scales. To encourage the production of natural enemies, a cost-effective diet for maintaining a sustainable colony, and a system for daily egg-harvesting of alternative prey were proposed.

Blue-green algae, Spirulina platensis is a well-known algal formulation known for its beneficial effects on the growth and development in several types of organisms. Although it is used as a food supplement, it possesses significant toxic effects on growth and development of organisms. This study assessed the positive/negative impacts of S . platensis on almond moth, Cadra cautella (almond moth) that is a serious pest of date fruits and other grains under laboratory conditions. The S . platensis powder were mixed with diet and newly hatched C . cautella larvae were fed. The larvae were observed on alternate days to record the data. The diet was changed once a week. The S . platensis proved very good nutrition supplement at lower dose. Whereas, moderate and high mortality was noted for 5 and 10% formulations, respectively. Moreover, larval span was significantly altered by different formulations and lower formulation (1%) resulted in shorter larval period compared to the rest of the formulations. Although 33% mortality was recorded under 5% S . platensis formulation, however, the larvae which reached to adult stage, copulated, and females laid more eggs. Furthermore, the highest mortality (90%) was observed under 10% S . platensis formulation and a few larvae reached adult stage; thus, no data on pupal period and reproductive traits was recorded for this formulation. These findings proved that S . platensis can be used as nutritional supplement as well as a toxic substance to manage C . cautella in date storage. However, future studies on this are needed to reach concrete conclusions.

Dates maintain prime importance as sources of income and as symbols of cultural heritage in Saudi Arabia. Ephestia cautella (Walker) is one of the most important insects that attack stored dates. In an effort to safeguard small-scale producers, temperatures of 5 °C (representing typical house refrigerator temperatures), − 14 °C (representing in-house freezer temperatures), and − 25 °C (representing temperatures in small factory freezers) were applied to samples of dates previously infested with E. cautella larvae. Exposure periods of 1, 12, 48, 120, and 240 h were considered to assess the effectiveness of freezing temperatures against stored product insect pests. The temperature of − 25 °C proved to be the most effective, resulting in 100% mortality across all stages after just 1 h of exposure. At 5 °C, the pupal stage exhibited the highest tolerance, with only a mean mortality of 11% after 240 h of exposure. Conversely, at the same temperature, mean mortalities of 89% and 97% were recorded for eggs and larvae, respectively. However, when larvae were placed inside the dates, the mean mortality was only 65% after 240 h at 5 °C, complete larval mortality was achieved in 12 h at  − 14 °C and 1 h at − 25 °C. This information can guide strategies for managing E. cautella in storage facilities with limited available resources.

Insects are one of the most successful groups of invasive species, and the number of new introductions has been increasing in the last decades. Insect invasions are affected mainly by the increase in international trade, as most of them travel across the world inside shipping containers. The effectiveness of sticky light traps was tested for the interception of alien pests inside the containers. The tested hypotheses were that light traps have a valuable broad-spectrum attraction and their trapping performance differs between empty or loaded containers. The optimal trap density in a container was also investigated. Trapping tests were conducted on four model species: Cadra cautella Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (Diptera: Drosophilidae), Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky, and Ips typographus L. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Insects were released within a standard shipping container, in either empty or loaded conditions, where sticky light traps were deployed for 15 h. Traps were tested with light on (activated) or off (control). Activated traps captured more Lepidoptera and Diptera than control ones, with no differences between empty and loaded container. Instead, Coleoptera were rarely caught, probably because of their ability to escape from traps. Results show that higher trap density in the container (from 1 to 8) increases the probability of insect capture. In conclusion, positive results on C. cautella and D. melanogaster suggest a possible application of sticky light traps against some small Lepidoptera and Diptera species flying in containers and infesting seeds, grains, and fruits, while traps need improvement for application against beetles.

Cadra cautella is a serious insect pest of stored figs and dates. The irradiation sensitivity of different development stages of C. cautella and large-scale testing of the proposed irradiation quarantine doses (50–500 Gy), were investigated. The impact of a PI dose of 400 Gy on the physiochemical and microbiological quality of dry dates (Bartamoda cv.) stored at room temperature was also investigated. An irradiation dose of 100 Gy prevented egg hatching in the F1 generation when 1–3 days old eggs were irradiated. Irradiation doses of 200 and 300 Gy prevented adult emergence when 2 nd and 4 th instar larvae were irradiated. When the pupae stage was irradiated, an irradiation dose of 400 Gy prevented the hatchability of F1 generation, indicating that this stage was the most radio-tolerant. The results of large-scale testing of the proposed phytosanitary irradiation dose (400 Gy) applied to 18, 0000 pupae resulted in no reproduction (zero hatching of F1 generation). There were no significant differences in the physiochemical properties of stored dates during the storage period at room temperature. Stable ESR signal intensity was recorded for 6 months in all parts of the irradiated fruits, and the intensity was highest in the kernel. The PI dose of 400 Gy also slightly reduced all microorganisms' counts. In conclusion, the dose level of 400 Gy stopped the reproduction potential of C. cautella . and they maintained the quality characteristics of dry date Bartamoda fruits during storage at room temperature for 6 months in tightly closed packages.

Orius strigicollis (Poppius) has been commonly released to control minute pests due to its remarkable foraging and predation ability. Despite decades long history of mass-rearing using eggs of Cadra cautella Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) as food, the cost of this food impeded the predator's marketing potential. Finding cost-effective artificial diets for mass rearing programs is, therefore, the key to promote the use of this generalist predator in practice.The aim of this study was to explore suitability of alternative diets for mass rearing of this predator, using the age-stage, two-sex life table. Eight recipes of artificial diets were initially screened, and the candidate diets were subsequently evaluated using the population parameters of O. strigicollis.The highest intrinsic rate of increase was found in the O. strigicollis fed on the meridic combined Diet 1, where nymphs and adults were fed different diets. However, the intensive period of oviposition by females reared on oligidic Diet O3 contributed to the shorter rearing period (42 d) and lower rearing cost than that on combined Diet 1 (60 d). Besides, with the harvest rate of 0.919, the minimal population size of 10,774 individuals with a stable age-stage distribution was needed for daily harvesting 1,000 third instars of O. strigicollis reared on Diet O3 at the rearing cost of 0.295 NTD (newTaiwanese dollar) per nymph.Thus, Diet O3 was determined to be the most cost-effective recipe for the mass-rearing of O. strigicollis among those used in this study.

The biology and predation of the generalist predator, Chrysoperla carnea (Stephen) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) were studied while feeding on motiles of two economically important spider mite pests: citrus brown mite (CBM), Eutetranychus orientalis (Klein) (Acari: Tetranychidae) and date palm mite (DPM), Oligonychus afrasiaticus (McGregor) (Acari: Tetranychidae) under low relative humidity (RH) (35 ± 5%). Results showed that the predator larvae did not pupate when fed on CBM and DPM motiles at both low and high RH. The shortest total predator larval duration was against motiles (14.65 ± 0.15 days) and eggs (15.42 ± 0.80 days) of CBM at low and high RH, respectively. Adult longevity, however, was higher when C. carnea was fed on the eggs of Ephestia cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) (male: 32.00 ± 1.61 days; female: 36.75 ± 0.25 days) than CBM eggs (male: 13.00 ± 0.00; female: 31.00 ± 2.00). The highest total predation by the predator larvae were found against the eggs of CBM (12671.11 at high RH) followed by motiles of CBM and DPM (4696.53 and 4088.16 at low RH), respectively. Considering the significance of CBM and DPM as a pest in the arid climate of Saudi Arabia, it is essential to understand how C . carnea responds to these pests at low RH. These results depict that the predator larvae voraciously fed on eggs and motiles of mite pest species revealing its potential use as a biological control agent against spider mites at both low and high RH levels. The high predation rate and completion of life cycle on the eggs of CBM could also be considered as satisfactory indication of the potential use of C . carnea larvae for spider mite management. The inability of the predator larvae to complete the life cycle against motiles of CBM and DPM could help to devise a management plan for multiple/repeated releases of the predator larvae.

Water distillation (hydrodistillation) was used as the extraction method to obtain essential oil from the aboveground organs of the Sideritis vulcanica species, an endemic species belonging to the Sideritis genus in the Lamiaceae family, which is a family very rich in secondary metabolites and active compounds. The chemical contents of essential oils were determined by GC and GC/MS analyses. As a result of the analysis, 41 components were determined in the essential oil. These components constitute 94.13% of the total oil. The essential oil yield in 100 g of dry sample was measured between 0.2-0.3 ml. As a result of our analysis, β-β-caryophyllene (17.80%), germacrene D (8.99%), and β-pinene (7.35%) were determined as the main components. According to these results, it was determined that Sideritis vulcanica Hub. Mor. essential oil applications were effective on the egg count and total hemocyte count of storage pests Cadra cautella Walker and Ephestia kuehniella Zeller. The observed differences indicate that the essential oil has a significant effect on the developmental biology and immune ability of the studied insects and may be useful and usable for future research on the practical management of this pest.