Management of Carpophilus spp. beetles (Nitidulidae) in stone fruit orchards by reducing the number of attract-and-kill traps in neighbouring areas
2013
Hossain, Mofakhar S. | Hossain, Mamun A.B.M. | Williams, David G. | Chandra, Subhash
Owing to variation in susceptibility of different stone fruit varieties to nitidulid beetles (Carpophilus spp.), growers generally use attract-and-kill traps to treat only the most susceptible fruit tree varieties. Carpophilus populations often tend to build up in the untreated, less-susceptible varieties and then migrate to ripening, more-susceptible varieties in neighbouring areas. This compromises the ability of attract-and-kill traps to control the pest in the treated orchards. The use of attract-and-kill traps at the standard rate of 3 traps/ha in less-susceptible varieties is also expensive. Field experiments were conducted over two consecutive growing seasons in stone fruit orchards to test whether treating neighbouring less-susceptible varieties with a reduced number of attract-and-kill traps (2 traps/ha) would compromise control of the pest in susceptible target plots (treated with 3 attract-and-kill traps/ha). Each of the target plots with susceptible varieties had a history of high levels of damage caused by Carpophilus spp. Both treatments resulted in low levels of damage and there were no significant differences in the number of beetles killed, or the amount of fruit damage caused in the susceptible target plots. These results suggest that deployment of 2 attract-and-kill traps per hectare in the neighbouring areas is adequate to protect the susceptible target orchards from migrating Carpophilus beetles.
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