Potential of indigenous low-cost lures for monitoring and as a component of integrated management of fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda

Abstract Background: Considering the increasing voracious feeding impact of the invasive fall armyworm; Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith) in major corn-growing belts of Africa, indigenous low-cost lures were compared with the commercial pheromone for monitoring and control of this pest via mass capture of the adults.Methods: Four sets of trials were conducted during two cropping (rainy and dry) seasons in two agro-ecological zones of Cameroon. The experiments were setup in randomised complete block designs with 5 lure treatments; palm wine, honeygar, commercial pheromone, Maize chyme, and a water control each replicated five times. Results: The Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) showed that the maize chyme low-cost lure attracted significantly higher numbers of the moths compared to the commercial pheromone (p<0.001). The maize chyme attracted more moths in the Western Highland savanna with a mean of 61.75 significantly different from the Humid rainforest with 30.50 moths (p<0.001). This was followed by Honeygar with 53.25 and 28.12 moths in the Highland savanna and Humid rainforest zones respectively. These were both significantly different from Palm wine (p<0.001). The highest numbers of adult fall armyworms were recorded in the Dry season, which were significantly different from the rainy season (p<0.001).Conclusion: The indigenous low-cost lures are effective tools in monitoring and control of fall armyworm as components of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy for resource-constrained smallholder farmers.