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 Pheromones and other semiochemicals
IOBC-WPRS Bulletin 99, 2014
pp. 159-163

Controlling oil palm bagworms (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) by mass

trapping of moths and Bacillus thuringiensis in Perak, Malaysia
Norman Kamarudin, Siti Ramlah A Ali, Mohd Najib Ahmad, Mazmira Mohamed and
Othman Arshad
Malaysian Palm Oil Board, PO Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract: The bagworms, Metisa plana Walker and Pteroma pendula Joannis (Lepidoptera:
Psychidae) are two of the most common bagworm species occurring in oil palm plantations in
Malaysia. The outbreaks of these two species are recurring in several locations, particularly in the
northern state of Perak (West coast) and southern state of Johor, of Peninsular Malaysia. Serious
damage to the palms can reduce yields up to 43% for subsequent two years. Between 2006-2008,
pheromone traps which consisted of sticky vanes baited with live receptive females were utilized quite
effectively for mass trapping of the male moths of the bagworm, Metisa plana for controlling its
subsequent population. Between 2011-2012, pheromone traps have also been utilized prior and
between the aerial application of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to control the bagworm Pteroma pendula.
The use of live virgin females as bait requires critical timing and identification of the receptive stage.
Trapping was conducted at an average of 30 traps per hectare in locations of high pest density. Mass
trapping of male bagworm moths was able to reduce the subsequent population of larvae by reducing
the chances of mating. The pheromone traps had shown complementary effect to the Bt application.
Whereby traps captured the male moths, Bt controlled the live, active feeding larval stages.

Key words: Metisa plana, Pteroma pendula, female baited trap

Introduction

Control of insect pests can be achieved by mass trapping using pheromone-baited traps that
lure insects to their death. The possibilities of direct control through mass trapping with
pheromone have been reported (Smit et al., 2001; Alpizar et al., 2002; Norman and Othman,
2006; Norman et al., 2010). Some of the insect pests which can be controlled by mass
trapping include Dacus dorsalis (Diptera: Tephiritidae), Heliothis armigera (Lepidoptera:
Noctuidae), Ostrinia nubilalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Cylas formicarius (Coleoptera:
Curculionidae), and Scolytus multistriatus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) (Nguyen et al., 1996).
A number of significant factors may influence the effectiveness of pheromone traps in
capturing insects, including distance of insects to trap (Byers, 1999), the trap design (Valles et
al., 1991) and pheromone plume characteristics (Ali Niazee, 1983). Besides that, other factors
such as trap maintenance, cropping system, residue management and environmental
conditions were postulated to have affected pheromone efficacy. In general, mass trapping are
cost-effective compared to mating disruption, since smaller amounts of pheromones are
needed and crop contamination during the application is much reduced (Witzgall et al., 2010).
Bagworms – Metisa plana and Pteroma pendula (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) – are one of
the most destructive defoliating agents of oil palm Malaysia. Mass trapping of the male adults
for control of the bagworm, Metisa plana in oil palm has been attempted by using live virgin
females (Norman and Othman, 2006; Norman et al., 2008; Norman et al., 2010). The results
indicated that there is a good potential to develop the synthetic female sex pheromone in order
to mass trap the male moths. There was lesser occurrence of female bags with eggs in the

159
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trapping plots, hence lowering number of live larvae per frond and reducing the frond damage
levels, eventually contributed to relatively higher fruit bunch weight (Norman et al., 2010).
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been used effectively for bagworm control via aerial
spraying at several oil palm plantations in Malaysia (Mazmira et al. (2011). In this study,
pheromone trapping using live virgin females has been used to reduce the existing bagworm
numbers before and in between spraying operations of the Bt.

Material and methods

The mass trapping technique used in this study utilises the receptive female stage of the
bagworm, therefore it is critical to determine the female’s receptive stage and its period of
receptivity, during which it is used as bait for the sticky vane traps.
The late instar M. plana larvae (stages 6 or 7) and P. pendula larvae (stage 3) collected
from the field can be reared on oil palm leaflets in plastic cylindrical cages. When they are
ready to pupate, the larva crawls to the ceiling of the cage, becoming inactive. The larva then
enters the pupation stage once the hook-shaped attachment is completed for M. plana or the
pendulum stage for P. pendula. The female pupa is generally always larger than the male. The
period from the pupal stage to mature female adult is around 11 days for M. plana and about 6
days for P. pendula (Table 1).
Receptivity of the females for both species is determined by the opening of the anterior
end of the pupal bag plus the intermittent protrusion of the female’s head and thorax from the
opening (Norman and Othman, 2006). During this time, the female emits the pheromone to
lure the males for mating. On average, they will stay receptive for about 9 days for M. plana
and 6 days for P. pendula (Table 1). After this period, the hole at the anterior end eventually
closes.

Table 1. Developmental period from pupa to receptive adult and duration of receptivity for
the female bagworms

No. of Period from pupation Period for female’s

Bagworm
female pupae (N) to receptive female receptivity (days  SE)
species
(days  SE)
Metisa plana 33 11.45  0.45 9.42  0.50
Pteroma pendula 31 6.45  0.26 5.77  0.52

A sticky vane trap was made by interlocking two zinc plates (30×30 cm). A trap was
baited with four receptive females, one placed in the center hole on each plane of the trap.
Each plane was evenly sprayed with polybutene glue prior to the placement of the live
females. The sticky vane trap was hung on a 2-m wooden pole (Figure 1). Thirty traps were
placed in three transects (ten traps per transect) along the harvesting paths within a 1 ha
bagworm-infested plot. The distance between each trap was about 20 m. A similar sized
control plot (without traps), was located approximately 100-200 m away from the trapping
plot. A number of census palms were predetermined for both trapping and control plots.
 161

Figure 1. A sticky vane trap baited with live receptive female as bait. Note the high capture of
the male moths.

Captures were made in three separate smallholder blocks in Teluk Intan, Perak, with
palm ages of between 6 to 16 year old for M. plana and 4 to 13 year old for P. pendula. The
traps (together with the receptive females as bait) were installed within the infested blocks at
approximately 2.5-months intervals for M. plana and 50 days for P. pendula. Trapping was
conducted for 14 days for each session. Live, late instar larvae were again collected in the
same block (for rearing to the female stage) at approximately 1-1.5 months after the last
trapping conducted. The traps were repeatedly placed within the infested blocks at the
abovementioned intervals until the population of live larvae subsided to below threshold
levels of 10 live larvae per oil palm frond.
Pteroma infested plots consisting of young (4 year old) and older (13 year old) palms at
Teluk Intan, Perak were aerial sprayed with Bt (Locally formulated Bt strain, Ecobac, at a rate
of 1 litre/ha) between late April to mid-August 2011 for the young palms and between late
September 2011 up to early December 2011 for the older palms. Trappings were conducted 3
times between April and August 2011 in the young palms and 4 times between October 2011
and April 2012 in the older palms. In general, bagworm populations tend to be higher in older
palms and the difference in treatment dates was due to the timing of spraying to coincide with
the emergence of the early instar larval stages.

Results and discussion

The mean number of male moths captured varied between 1.7 to 186 individuals / trap / day
(Table 2). Normally, the number of captures was reduced in the 2nd week, because the
females receptivity period is only about 9 days (Table 1).
162

Table 2. Mean number of M. plana male moths captured per trap per day, after 14-days
trapping at different levels of infestation

Block (age of palms) Mean number of moths captured

1st placement of traps Number of days after the first
placement of traps
75 152 250 335
A (16 years) 29.4 185.7 110.7 10.2 6.3
B (7 years) 48.8 2.8 10.0 TNR TNR
C (6 years) 58.1 20.2 9.8 TNR TNR
D (6 years) 5.5 16.7 10.5 1.7 TNR
Note: TNR – trapping no longer required, due to reduced and negligible occurrence of bagworm.

There were significantly lower (p = 0.002) egg hatching occurrences in the trapping plot
compared to the control plot. On average, the percentage of female bags with eggs in the
trapping plot was about 20% lower than the control plot, thus, further confirmed that the
chances of successful mating was reduced by trapping the male moths.
The number of live larvae/pupae was substantially reduced after each trapping round.
This also confirmed the earlier observation that the percentage of bags with eggs (mated
females) had reduced, hence lowering the population of the subsequent generation of
bagworm. In general, the subsequent population of live bagworm larvae in the trapping plot
was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than the control plot. The highest peak of live larvae/pupae
in the control plot had reached 70 per frond, compared to less than 30 per frond in the
trapping plot..
The oil palm bunch weight data from the respective plots were gathered after 6 months
from the commencement of trapping. The average bunch weight in the trapping plot had
increased 22%, significantly higher (p = 0.003), compared to before trapping started. On the
other hand, the bunch weight increase in the control plot was only 15% and not significant
(p = 0.28). These results further confirmed that mass trapping had improved yields by
reducing the bagworm population and frond damage.
For the 4 year old palms, it was observed that when the captures of moths were too low
(< 1.0 moths/trap/day) in April 2011, the population in both trapping and control plots had
increased < 2-fold. Aerial spraying of Bt was then conducted towards this rising bagworm
population which subsequently reduced the numbers to below threshold levels. A high capture
of about 30 moths/trap/day and followed by aerial spray of Bt then finally reduced the
bagworm population to below 5 live bagworms/frond. The following trapping sessions which
captured a mean of only 5 moths/trap/day was sufficiently low that the next population of
bagworm was reduced to negligible levels.
In the 13 year old palms, aerial spraying of Bt was first conducted on 26 September 2011,
after which a trapping session was conducted on 4th October to trap the remaining bagworm
population which have pupated during the spray operation. Similarly, subsequent rounds of
aerial spraying of Bt were complemented with pheromone trappings to reduce the population,
except between the last two sprays between end November and early December. Then
onwards, two pheromone trappings were conducted solely in February and April 2012
without aerial spraying of Bt. The exceptionally high captures of around 19 moths per trap per
day in April 2012 have reduced the population of bagworm in both trapping and control plot
 163

to below threshold levels. The overall effect of trapping was manifested by the smaller
increase in the subsequent population of the live bagworm population, compared to the
control blocks.
Our studies show that the use of mass trapping of male bagworm moths could
complement the use of Bt sprays to more effectively reduce bagworm populations over
several generations. At present because the sex pheromone of this species has not been
identified the use of live female bagworms while effective is likely cost prohibitive

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