Evaluation of Acid-Based Pheromone for Monitoring Diaphorina citri, Vector of Huanglongbing Diseases Under Tropical Climate

Background and Objective: Diaphorina citri, also called the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), is a vector for huanglongbing (HLB) disease. It has been identified as a significant problem for citrus farmers worldwide. However, no systematic monitoring programs specifically target ACP populations in the tropics, such as Indonesia. This study tests the efficiency of yellow sticky traps with acid-based attractants, such as acetic (AA), formic (FA) and propionic (PA) acids. Materials and Methods: The concentration of each acid was 1 µL acetic acid (AA), 0.25 µL formic acid (FA) and 0.1 µL propionic acid (PA). The study was conducted in three different controlled conditions: Semi-field and open field, with low and high population scenarios. The data obtained were subjected to analysis using a One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with a confidence level of 95% and differences were analyzed using Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test. Results: In the under-controlled setting, AA was the most effective, with 13 adult ACP captures, which is 4.3 times more than the control (3.00). In the semi-field condition, PA had the best result of 3.8, which is 1.4 times higher than the control (2.6). In the low population scenario of the open field condition, AS had the highest ACP catch of 4.1, which is 17.1 times higher than the control (2.33). On the other hand, the high-population AA condition had the highest result of 13.71 or 4.1 times higher than the control (3.29). Conclusion: The utilization of acid attractants, whether AA, FA or PA, is effective in increasing the catch of adult ACP under tropical conditions. However, the performance of the three types of acids was not stable in the three series of studies that were conducted. © 2025 Haris Setyaningrum et al.