Insect attractant

#This application is a national stage application (under 35 U.S.C. §371) of PCT/IB2008/050874, filed Mar. 11, 2008 which claims benefit of South African applications 2007/02086 filed Mar. 12, 2007, 2007/04073, filed May 21, 2007 and 2007/08349, filed Oct. 1, 2007.

#THIS INVENTION relates to attractants for insects that can be used in pest control.

#A number of chemical compounds have been identified that attract some insects and/or other pests under some conditions and these attractant compositions are used in pest control to lure insects toward pest control means such as traps and toxins. However, many of these attractants are not sufficiently effective in attracting the species that are being targeted, are harmful to the environment, are too costly, etc.

#For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show how it may be carried into effect, a number of non-limiting, illustrative experimental examples are described.

#Background

#The original aim of these experiments was to identify cheaper but still effective fruitfly attractants comparable to an insect attractant that is commercially available in South Africa under the trade name “Hymlure”; especially in catching female fruitflies. Ginger oil was identified to be very effective in catching medfly (Mediterranean fruitfly or Ceratitis capitata) females but not male medflies and pumpkinflies. It was also too expensive to compete with Hymlure. Various good male medfly catching attractants were identified. In the subsequent further search for alternative cheaper but still effective fruitfly attractants, the attractants of the present invention had been identified as being very highly attractive towards both male and female medflies. It also attracts pumpkinflies (Dacus cucurbitae) at about the same degree as Hymlure or other commercially available attractants such as GF-120. The example of the composition of the present invention that was used in these experiments is N-acetyl thiazolidine carboxylic acid (NATC).