Nantucket Pine Tip Moth Lure
Latin Name: Rhyacionia frustrana
Lure: Gray Rubber Septum
Lure Active Ingredient: E9-12Ac and E9,11-12Ac
Field Life: 30 days
Trap to Use: Red Paper or Plastic Delta Trap
Monitoring Strategy: Hang traps in or nearby potential host trees.
Cultural and Physical Control: Check for dying or defoliated young buds or other new growth, and/or for stunted growth in pines Excise and remove if possible and/or necessary. Pine highly susceptible to infestation should be planted only on sites to which they are well adapted.
Distribution: United States, from Massachusetts south to Florida, west to Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and California, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Oaxaca (Mexico), Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Hosts: Many Species of Pine (Pinus), including Jack, Caribbean, and Cuban, Loblolly, Lodgepole, Monterey, Oocarp, Pitch, Pond, Ponderosa, Red, Sand, Scotch, Shortleaf, Slash, Sonderegger, Spruce, Table-Mountain, and Virginia Pine
Description: Adult moths: The wingspan is roughly 11 mm. Heads, bodies and appendages covered with gray scales. Forewings have rusty-red markings, dark basal patches. Forewings measure between 4-7 mm in males and 4-7.5 mm in females, who are generally larger.
Larvae: Younger larvae are cream-colored with black heads, older larvae are light brown to orange. At maturity, larvae reach approx. 9 mm in length.
Eggs: Slightly convex, about 0.8 mm in diameter. Initially opaque white, then turning yellow or medium green.
Life Cycle: Young larvae feed on the outside of new growth for a short period of time and later bore into shoot tips, conelets and buds. Larval feeding continues for three to four weeks. Pupation occurs in damaged tissues over the winter. Moths emerge in the early spring, sometimes as early as February in Florida, when warm days become common. The moths mate and females oviposit eggs on new pine shoots and conelets or last year's shoots. In cool weather (late winter or early spring), eggs may take 30 days to hatch, but require only five to 10 days to hatch in hot weather (late summer).
