Mass rearing of the oriental tobacco budworm for sterile insect technique programs

The main purpose of the study is to find out a proper technique for mass rearing the oriental tobacco budworm, Helicoverpa assulta Guenee. The oriental tobacco budworms larvae were reared with different formulation diets and kept in traditional glass test tubes or in specially-designed cell-unit devices. When the diets including vitamin C and tomato source, and the ratio of corn and soybean powder was set as 1:2, the pupae weight, moth weight, pupation, emergence, fecundity and hatchability were increased significantly. When reared in cell-units, there is no significant difference in insect compared with those in glass test tubes, but the production efficiency was much higher and the cost was lower than the latter. The results of this study provide a key technical support for the application of sterile insect technique in control of oriental tobacco budworm. (authors)