Control of grape berry moth larvae using parasitoids: should it be developed?
Résumé
Besides mating disruption techniques and progress in monitoring techniques (e.g. the
use of food traps against females), biological control may reveal itself very efficient at controlling
grape moth populations. Parasitoids active to control grape moths are known for long in
vineyards; few of them were already described in the middle of the 19th century in French
vineyards and their efficiency was already recognized especially against the diapausing and the
first spring generations of the moths. Rather numerous attempts to release egg parasitoids have
been done in different European countries using different species of trichogrammas. The results
obtained varied a lot and could not yet clearly promote the use of this technique in vineyards. We
believe that a biological control based on larval parasitoids could efficiently be developed as a
valuable alternative to chemical control. In the present paper, we focus on larval parasitoids
among which ichneumonids and chalcidoids (Hymenoptera) dominate, and present results
obtained in different French vineyards (Bordeaux vineyard, Perpignan and Montpellier area,
Côtes du Rhône and Alsace). We discuss factors that may favour or reduce their efficiency as
biocontrol agents.