War in the darkness: the use of Volatile Organic Compounds and entomopathogenic nematodes to control wireworms

Plant roots release in the soil Volatiles Organic Compounds (VOCs) that guide belowground phytophagous insects, such as wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae). Wireworms are generalist insect pests that can be found in many crops where they are responsible for high economical losses, killing the plants at early stages. Attract-and-kill strategies have great potential because wireworms are attracted by plant odors released from the rhizosphere and, later on, entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) have shown their great utility to control the larvae of various soil insect pests. In order to develop such an attract-and-kill strategy, we archived different aims (1) the selection of entomopathogenic nematode species that readily infects and kills wireworms and combining it with attractive VOCs (2) the development of a blend of VOCs that could attract wireworms and induce the feeding on the lure with EPNs (3) the comparison of the conventional screening to the attract-and-kill system showing an increasing of the efficiency (4) the wireworm’s monitoring for a possible metabolism affection after EPNs infection in conventional screening and after the attract-and-kill feeding. By increasing the efficiency of the attract-and-kill, we aim at further improving this promising alternative to pesticides.