Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 118/4, 1–6, Ljubljana 2022
doi:10.14720/aas.2022.118.4.2515 Original research article / izvirni znanstveni članek
Effect of foliar application of glucose and fructose to reduce codling 
moth (Cydia pomonella [L., 1758]) damages on apple orchard
Abd-el-Kader TIFFRENT 1, 2, Nadia LOMBARKIA 1
Received January 18, 2022; accepted October 21, 2022.
Delo je prispelo 18. januarja 2022, sprejeto 21. oktobra 2022
1 Laboratory of Improvement of the Phytosanitary Protection Techniques in Mountanious Agrosystems, Agronomy Department, ISVSA, University Batna 1, Algeria
2 Corresponding author, e-mail: abdelkader@univ-batna.dz
Effect of foliar application of glucose and fructose to reduce 
codling moth (Cydia pomonella [L., 1758]) damages on apple 
orchard
Abstract: The apple is a dominant crop in Batna region 
and codling moth (CM) (Cydia pomonella) pressure is con-
stantly very high. In this study, foliar application of single sug-
ars is proposed as a novel control strategy, in an orchard lo-
cated in Beni Fedhala (province of Batna-Algeria). The effect 
of spraying fructose (100 ppm), glucose (100 ppm), and insec-
ticide (Deltamethrin) was tested against CM larval damages on 
the Royal Gala variety. This research showed that CM own four 
generations in this region. The spraying of glucose alone, fruc-
tose alone strongly reduced the percentage of damaged fruits 
with a very important value of Abbott’s efficacy. In addition, 
fructose and insecticide induced a significant decrease in the 
percentages of fallen and damaged fruits. Besides, the use of 
fructose, glucose and the insecticide has significantly reduced 
the number of diapausing larvae in corrugated cardboard 
banding. Foliar application of sugars is a completely innovative 
way in the field of plant protection. These results open new crop 
management methods.
Key words: Cydia pomonella, glucose, fructose, Deltame-
thrin
Učinek foliarnega nanosa glukoze in fruktoze za zmanjšanje 
škod po jabolčnem zavijaču (Cydia pomonella [L., 1758]) v 
nasadu jablan
Izvleček: Jablana je dominatna sadna vrsta na območju 
Batne in napad jabolčnega zavijača je stalno zelo velik. V raz-
iskavi je bil uporabljen nanos posameznih sladkorjev kot novi 
način uravnavanja škodljivca v sadovnjakih na območju Beni 
Fedhala (provinca Batna-Alžirija). Preiskušeno je bilo škroplje-
nje s fruktozo (100 ppm), glukozo (100 ppm) in insekticidom 
(Deltametrin) glede na poškodbe, ki so jih ličinke jabolčnega 
zavijača povzročile na sorti Royal Gala. Raziskava je pokazala, 
da ima jabolčni zavijač na tem območju štiri generacije. Škro-
pljenje samo z glukozo ali samo s fruktozo je močno zmanjšalo 
delež poškodovanih plodov s pomembno vrednostjo Abbotto-
ve učunkovitosti. Dodatno je obravnava s fruktozo in insekti-
cidom vzpodbudila značilno zmanšanje odstotka odpadlih in 
poškodovanih plodov. Poleg tega je uporaba fruktoze, glukoze 
in insekticidov značilno zmanjšala število bub v lovilnih tra-
kovih na deblu jablan. Foliarni nanos sladkorjev je popolnoma 
nov pristop na področju varstva rastlin. Izsledki te raziskave 
odpirajo nove metode pri gojenju rastlin. 
Ključne besede: Cydia pomonella; glukoza; fruktoza; Del-
tametrin
Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 118/4 – 20222
A. K. TIFFRENT and N. LOMBARKIA
1 INTRODUCTION
The codling moth (Cydia pomonella [L., 1758]) 
(CM) is one of the greatest hindrances to apple produc-
tion in Algeria. The adoption of environmentally accept-
able pest control management has increased in the face of 
dwindling conventional control methods. Sugars not only 
fuel cellular carbon and energy metabolism but also play 
pivotal roles as signaling molecules, in plants, different 
sugar signals are responsible to modulate growth, devel-
opment, and stress responses (Rolland et al., 2006). The 
existence of Lepidoptera species is dependent on the site 
that the female chooses to lay the eggs since the hatching 
larvae are less mobile (Derridj et al., 2012). The composi-
tion of a metabolite blend on the leaf surface consisting 
of glucose, fructose, sucrose, sorbitol, quebrachitol, and 
myo-inositol is one of the factors that could explain the 
variation of the intensity of egg-laying by the moth from 
one cultivar to another (Lombarkia et al., 2013). The 
studies of Lombarkia (2002) and Lombarkia et al., (2008 
and 2013) were tested the link of these six metabolites on 
C. pomonella egg-laying behaviour to reduce the dam-
age. Furthermore, other researchers (Derridj et al., 2011, 
Arnault et al., [2015, 2016]) have shown an increased in-
terest in the concept of exogenous application of sugars 
on apple trees to reduce the damage of C. pomonella in 
commercial orchards in several countries (France, Italy, 
Greece, and Algeria).
As for all agricultural crops, plant protection prob-
lems such as pests and diseases are the major factors de-
creasing apple production. CM cause economical losses 
in orchards in the Batna region, the interest in strategies 
in order to keep the pest populations at an economically 
negligible level is consequently increasing.
In this context, the present research proposed ex-
ogenous application of sugars specifically fructose alone 
and glucose alone on apple trees. A main objective is the 
assessment in the orchard of the impact of low doses of 
sugars on fruit damages in comparison to the untreated 
control, for developing a new environmentally acceptable 
control method.  
2 MATERIAL AND METHODS 
This research was conducted at the Batna region, 
eastern Algeria, (35°21′21,6ʺ N, 006°01′ 16,5ʺ E) and in 
a Royal Gala apple orchard. Four apple plots test treat-
ments of C. pomonella. The treated orchard (surface of 2 
ha, 9 years old) was managed under common practices 
of the zone.
One attractive sex pheromone trap type Russell IPM 
was used to follow the pest dynamics and population of 
CM during 2019 and 2020, placed at eye level, trapping 
took place between 17th March to 04th September 2019 
and 17th March to 04th September 2020, the observations 
were carried out every 3 days. The total number of cap-
tured moths was counted.
2.1 TREATMENTS
The orchard was divided into four plots adjusted in 
a randomized Latin square with four repetitions and each 
plot has three trees, the modalities tested were fructose 
at 100 ppm (10 g 100 l-1), glucose at 100 ppm (10 g 100 
l-1) and insecticide Decis 25 EC (25 g l-1 Deltamethrin) at 
(0.5 l) 1000 l -1 dose, in addition to the unsprayed control 
modality, The treatments were applied using an electrical 
pressure sprayer (12 V-12 Ah), capacity 16 l. (Fructose 
and glucose are produced by Fluka Biochemika and De-
cis by Bayer).
The morning treatments (sugars and insecticide) 
were carried out every 20 days throughout the season 
from the flowering end until harvest (Derridj et al., 2012).
2.2 DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS
According to the Abbott’s formula, T0 – Tt / T0 × 
100 (where T0 is the percentage of infested fruits in the 
untreated plots and Tt is the percentage of infected fruits 
in the treated plots), the percentage of fruit damaged at 
harvest, efficiency of treatments at harvest and percent-
age of fallen and damaged fruits were measured.  
2.3 COUNTING DIAPAUSING LARVAE 
The larva at the end of its growth (fifth instar lar-
vae) overwinters in a cocoon (diapausing larvae) in the 
crevices of the trunk. The sequestration of diapausing 
larvae by bandaging tree trunks provides a simple and 
effective means to estimate the CM population, a strip of 
corrugated cardboard (20 cm wide) was placed around 
the trunk of all trees, of the four plots and at a height of 
20 cm from the ground, installed between mid-April to 
the end September, the captured diapausing larvae were 
counted. 
2.4 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
All analyses were performed using SPSS software 
v 2016. The means of each variable (percentage of fruit 
damaged at harvest, efficiency Abbott of treatments at 
Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 118/4 – 2022 3
Effect of foliar application of glucose and fructose to reduce codling moth ... damages on apple orchard
harvest and percentage of fallen and damaged fruits, 
number of diapausing larvae), were compared by ANO-
VA on ranks test, followed by post hoc analysis using 
Fisher’s and Tukey’s tests or Kruskal-Wallis test. A P-
value of 0.05 was used to establish significance in all tests. 
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 SEXUAL TRAPPING OF ADULTS
Two trials were conducted during the 2019 and 2020 
seasons, where there are four full codling moth genera-
tions (Table 1).
The determination of generations is based on the 
following principle described by Hmimna and Iraqui 
(2015), the division a significant and stable increase in 
catches, followed by a sufficiently long inter-flight (± 30 
days) with few catches, indicates a nascent or finishing 
flight comparable to the start or the end of a generation.
In Algeria, several studies revealed that the CM 
has two at four generations depending on the climate 
conditions and the regions. For instance, Soltani et al. 
(1986), has been stated that CM in quince orchard has 
four generations while the fourth is partial. Furthermore, 
Abdesselam (2016) reported two generations of CM in 
Inoughissen (Batna) and Meradi (2015) found that CM 
produced three generations in the season. Besides, Tif-
frent and Lombarkia (2021) indicated that CM in Batna 
province, has four generations in the season on the Gold-
en Delicious variety. 
3.2 DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS AND TREATMENTS 
EFFICACY
Foliar sprays of fructose and glucose reduced signif-
icantly the percentage of fruit damaged at harvest com-
pared to the control, the analysis of variance (Kruskal-
Wallis test), (p < 0.05) identifies three groups, control 
(76.99 ± 1.97  %, a group), glucose and fructose (15.27 
± 1.06 % and 16.45 ± 0.59 % respectively (b group), fol-
lowed by the spraying of the insecticide with 10.97 ± 
0.56 % (c group ) (Figure 1). 
The Abbott efficiency at harvest of glucose treat-
ments is 80.25 % and fructose generates an average per-
centage efficiency of 78.58 % compared to the insecticide 
85.64 %. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by 
the Tukey test (p < 0.05) identifies two groups (Table 2).
On the other hand, the spraying of fructose alone 
and the insecticide induced a significant decrease in the 
percentages of damaged and fallen fruits compared to 
the untreated control and glucose alone. The analysis 
of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Tukey test (p < 
0.05) identifies three groups, control and glucose 32.54 
± 1.25%, 31.93 ± 1.16 % respectively (a group), fructose 
19.16 ± 0.91 %, (b group) and insecticide 09.78 ± 0.8 % (c 
group) (Figure 2).
Moreover, the spraying of glucose, fructose and the 
insecticide induced a significant decrease in the number 
of diapausing larvae compared to the untreated control. 
The analysis of variance (Kruskal-Wallis test), (p < 0.05) 
identifies two groups, control 34.50 ± 2.55 % (a group), 
glucose 10.08 ± 1.55 %, fructose 06.67 ± 1.67 % and in-
secticide 08.25 ± 2.22 % respectively (b group) (Figure 3).
By drawing on the concept of the exogenous foliar 
application of a single sugar can induce plant resistance 
to the pest, Arnault et al. (2015) indicated that on Granny 
Smith variety, sprays of fructose at 100 ppm in combi-
nation with organo-phosphorus (OP) and insect growth 
Figure 1: Percentage of damaged fruits at harvest in apple 
orchard (n = 12) on different modalities (control, fructose, 
glucose, insecticide). Different letters indicate a significantly 
different percentages of fruit damaged at harvest at p < 0.05
Figure 2: Percentage of fallen and damaged fruits in apple 
orchard (n = 12) on different modalities (control, fructose, 
glucose, insecticide). Different letters indicate a significantly 
different percentage of fallen and damaged fruits at p < 0.05
Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 118/4 – 20224
A. K. TIFFRENT and N. LOMBARKIA
regulator (IGR) have significantly reduced the percent-
age of damaged fruits by CM at harvest compared to the 
OP and IGR alone (6.5 %, 10 %); and the efficiency is im-
proved by 35 %. In 2013, 2014, at organic orchards study; 
Arnault et al. (2015) demonstrated that, the foliar appli-
cations of fructose to 100 ppm could reduce CM damage 
by 55 % on the Gala variety. In addition, Arnault et al. 
(2016) showed that fructose 100 ppm reduced the dam-
age of CM in four commercial apple orchards from 2013 
to 2014 in Algeria and France, and the results revealed 
an efficacy Abbott of 48.9 % and the average percentage 
of infested fruits was 8.1 % which was significantly lower 
compared to the untreated modality (23.8 %). 
Similarly, previous studies have demonstrat-
ed the potential of foliar application of sucrose in 
micro-doses to control C. pomonella performed in the 
Batna region support our findings.
For instance, Meradi (2015) has demonstrated in her 
Dates of 
trapping
Traps G1 Dates of 
trapping
Traps G2 Dates of 
trapping
Traps G3 Dates of 
trapping
Traps G4
2019 2020 2019 2020 2019 2020 2019 2020
20/03
23/03
26/03
29/03
01/04
04/04
07/04
10/04
13/04
16/04
19/04
22/04
25/04
28/04
01/05
1
0
1
0
1
1
2
0
0
8
23
36
34
35
26
1
0
1
0
0
4
6
7
23
40
18
22/04
25/04
28/04
01/05
04/05
07/05
10/05
13/05
16/05
19/05
22/05
25/05
10
14
31
13
13
10
38
19
10
18
20
40
50
48
52
27
16/05
19/05
22/05
25/05
28/05
31/05
03/06
06/06
09/06
12/06
15/06
18/06
21/06
24/06
27/06
30/06
03/07
06/07
09/07
12/07
15/07
18/07
21/07
24/07
27/07
03
19
25
09
26
16
11
14
10
14
29
80
75
70
42
20
24
24
10
14
17
10
17
10
10
11
10
11
13
13
14
12
12
15
20
22
27
20
14
13
12/07
15/07
18/07
21/07
24/07
27/07
30/07
02/08
05/08
08/08
11/08
14/08
17/08
20/08
23/08
26/08
29/08
01/09
04/09
5
13
21
15
31
10
7
45
3
2
2
20
09
06
14
16
10
08
10
11
13
18
15
7
7
6
4
5
4
4
4
5
Table 1: The number of catches of C. pomonella adult males during the four generations
Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 118/4 – 2022 5
Effect of foliar application of glucose and fructose to reduce codling moth ... damages on apple orchard
study conducted on the Starkrimson variety, that fructose 
100 ppm has reduced the percentage of fallen and dam-
aged fruits compared to the control (56.0  %and64.0  % 
respectively), and the Abbott effectiveness at harvest was 
31.71 %. While in the study of Abdesselam (2016) on the 
Golden Delicious variety, sprays of fructose at 100 ppm 
and glucose at 100 ppm significantly reduced the per-
centage of fallen and damaged fruits at harvest (92.28 %, 
67.47 % respectively) compared to the control  (92.28 %); 
the Abbott effectiveness at harvest were 69.06  % and 
8.28 % respectively. In addition, Tiffrent and Lombarkia 
(2021) have specified that in the study leading on Golden 
Delicious variety, Abbott’s efficiency at harvest obtained 
for fructose 100 ppm and glucose 100 ppm were 15.54 % 
and 23.75 % respectively. Whereas in the study of Nasri 
(2015) on the Royal Gala variety the use of glucose at 10 
ppm has significantly reduced the percentage of fallen 
and damaged fruits compared to the control (24.77 %) 
and (54.19 %) respectively, and the Abbott effectiveness 
at harvest was 11.86 %.
This finding, apparent from these studies while pre-
liminary, suggests that the Royal Gala variety was better 
suited to the concept of the exogenous foliar application 
at doses of 100 ppm for glucose and fructose in our cur-
rent study, they have reduced the percentage of fallen and 
damaged fruits at harvest (31.93 %, 19.16 % respectively) 
compared to the control (32.54 %); the Abbott effective-
ness at harvest was 80.25 % and 78.58 % respectively.
Walters et al. (2013) explained that induced resist-
ance is a host response; its expression under field condi-
tions is likely to be influenced by a number of factors, 
including the environment, genotype, crop nutrition and 
the extent to which plants are already induced. 
The overwintering is often a critical part of the in-
sect life-cycle; CM overwinters as a diapausing fifth instar 
larva. As mentioned in our results, the influence of the 
spraying of glucose and fructose in diapausing larvae has 
been demonstrated. These results are in agreement with 
the findings of other studies. Meradi (2015) reported that 
treated plots with fructose 100 ppm showed a significant-
ly reduced number of CM diapausing larvae compared to 
the control, and Nasri (2015) proved that glucose 10 ppm 
decreased significantly the number of diapausing larvae 
compared to the control (untreated). Consequently, with 
this decrease in the number of diapausing larvae, we pre-
dict and estimate a low population of adults in the next 
generation and allow adapted the protection strategy for 
the following year. 
4 CONCLUSION
Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded 
that the exogenous application of sugars can reduce cod-
ling moth damage and small molecules such as glucose 
and fructose can induce resistance to C. pomonella by 
foliar applications. Possible future studies using the same 
trials on Royal Gala variety is proposed to confirm these 
findings for the development of biocontrol strategies.
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A. K. TIFFRENT and N. LOMBARKIA
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