Preparation and evaluation of attractive microspheres for control of Agrilus planipennis fairmaire.

Fairmaire is an important wood boring pest of species in the family Oleaceae. Oxacyclotridecan-2-one is an attractant of Traps with attractive lures can be used in mass trapping of insect pests, but the traps are a bit expensive and they must be set up and dismantled in the field. To develop an attract and kill method for , we enveloped oxacyclotridecan-2-one into sustained-released microspheres. The attractant microspheres were prepared using the solvent evaporation method. An orthogonal test L(4) was used to optimize the five preparation factors: the quantities of polylactic acid (PLA), gelatin, Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), attractant, and the rotational speed. The results showed that optimal conditions for preparation of microspheres were 2.5 g PLA, 0.5 g gelatin, 1.25 g PVA, 2 mL attractant and 600 r min rotational speed. The encapsulation efficiency of the prepared microspheres was 95.22%, and the attractant loading rate was 15.61%. The release rate of attractant from prepared microspheres was about 26.74% on the first day, and then gradually entered a sustained-release stage for about 10 days that lasted for 17 days. Preliminary field control experiments showed that the prepared microspheres could attract and kill adults when sprayed together with insecticide.