Enhancing the efficacy of pheromone trap against brinjal shoot and fruit borer

Abstract

Exploiting the brinjal shoot and fruit borer (BSFB), Leucinodes orbonalis (Crambidae: Lepidoptera) sex attraction with monitoring and/or mass trapping approach is an ecofriendly IPM method. To improve the trapping system components, two field experiments were conducted with superior and waterless pheromone trap designs as alternative to the regular water basin trap. Results showed that the improved delta trap (patent-filed as Delta-Plus) is superior in terms of both catch efficiency and more user-friendly. The additional access vents in three combinations of dimensions and vent numbers led to significantly more moth catches. Further, the moth catches for the same amount of pheromone dispensed in the widely used cheaper funnel trap were observed to be too low and inefficient for BSFB trapping.