Performance of pheromone and light traps in monitoring and management of tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)

Tuta absoluta is an invasive, oligophagous pest that has been recently reported from Pakistan. Although originated from South America, it has now introduced and spread in almost all the tomato growing areas of the globe including Pakistan. Therefore, delta type pheromone traps containing synthetic 0.8 mg pheromone along with various colored light traps i.e., red, blue, golden, white, and green were evaluated for the monitoring and management of T. absoluta. Weekly observations were taken for the mean capture of T. absoluta moths in traps along with mean infestation percentage on leaves, stems and fruits of tomato. Results indicated that all the traps were found effective to attract T. absoluta moths, but they vary in their effectiveness to capture moths. Pheromone traps capture only males, whereas light traps attracted both the sexes. Significantly the highest number of males were captured in female synthesized pheromone traps, followed by golden color light traps, whereas red color light traps capture least number of males. Males captured in blue, white, and green color light traps were not significantly different from each other. Significantly the highest number of females were captured in golden color light traps, followed by blue color trap, whereas females capture in white and green color light traps were not significantly different from each other. The least number of females were captured in red color light traps. The tomatoes grown in golden color light and pheromone traps significantly suffered the lowest infestation, followed by blue, white, and green color light traps, whereas maximum damage was observed in red color light trap treatment. Only temperature showed a significant but very weak influence on the performance of various traps to attract T. absoluta moths. Therefore, studies should be undertaken to evaluate various combination of light traps with pheromone to maximize the capture T. absoluta moths, that could not only help in its early monitoring and detection but could lead to its mass destruction.