The potential of flower odours for use in population monitoring of Western flower thripsFrankliniella occidentalisPerg. (Thysanoptera: Thripidae)

Abstract

Sticky blue traps are a suitable and important tool for Western Flower Thrips population monitoring in greenhouses. They can be used in vegetables and in ornamentals, and provide important information on the current status of the pest population. However, such traps cannot be used in some susceptible plant species when they are flowering because at that stage the plants are more attractive to Western Flower Thrips than the traps. We therefore tried to increase trap attractiveness by combining the colour cue with an attractive odour cue. In laboratory experiments, we found a significant additive effect on attractiveness for two odours in traps provided with both the visual and the olfactory cues as compared to traps with either cue alone. However, these results could not easily be reproduced in greenhouses. The main factors responsible for this failure seem to be (1) the only moderate, additive increase of trap attractiveness when using combined visual and olfactory cues, and (2) the problems associated wi...