Intercept Traps for Monitoring Lygus Flux Between Fields
1USDA-ARS, Shafter, CA, USA
2Kearney Agricultural Center University of California, Kearney, CA, USA
Correspondence: jsbancroft@pw.ars.usda.gov
Window pain traps integrate over the time of deployment and are useful for monitoring the movement of insects. In previous designs, small glass or Plexiglas frames intercept insects in flight, causing them to fall into a collecting reservoir. We have modified this idea by increasing the size of the interception area in order to detect the movement of arthropods, including Lygus hesperus. They have been especially useful for measuring dispersal from alfalfa to cotton. This intercept trap is 1 x 2 meters and is easily constructed. The trap consists of aluminum T-bar with wooden slates which form the frame. Plastic pallet wrap is used as the clear “window”. Inexpensive plastic rain gutters provide the collecting reservoir when filled with antifreeze. This trap provided good evidence of Lygus movement from swathed alfalfa to cotton when it was placed between the two fields. Maximum movement peaked at 48 hours after cutting and dropped off rapidly after that. This tool provides relative numbers of movement and the direction of movement based on which side of the trap was struck and therefore, into which gutter the insect fell. We are now using sample transects in source and destination fields (along with mortality estimates) to calibrate the efficiency of the trap.
|
PREVIOUS Age specific fecundity of Lygus hesperus in high, fluctuating temperatures |
NEXT Insecticide resistance and efficacy of novaluron and flonicamid for control of Lygus bugs in alfalfa seed |