How to translate text using browser tools
31 January 2020 Local Depletion of Click Beetle Populations by Pheromone Traps Is Weather and Species Dependent
Willem G. van Herk, Robert S. Vernon
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Several Agriotes click beetle species are important pests of vegetables and field crops. Monitoring for beetles is generally done with pheromone-baited traps maintained in permanent locations. Since dispersal is mostly by walking, such traps may deplete populations around them, leading to underestimations of populations relative to nontrapped areas, and of concomitant risk of wireworm damage to nearby crops. We placed sets of five pitfall traps in field headland areas in 2015–2017, of which two were baited with Agriotes obscurus (L) or Agriotes lineatus (L) (Coleoptera: Elateridae) pheromone. Of these, one was maintained in a permanent location, while the other moved among the remaining positions. Traps were checked weekly over the emergence period. For A. obscurus, fixed and moving traps initially collected similar numbers, but the latter collected significantly more later in the season, indicating depletion around fixed traps. Depletion was most pronounced after a period of cold weather, and around the peak swarming period. Depletion observed for A. lineatus was not statistically significant.This indicates pheromone-baited traps used for walking insects can underestimate populations, but depletion rates vary with species and temperature and should be accounted for when traps are used to develop action thresholds or time control strategies.

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Agriculture, 2020. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Willem G. van Herk and Robert S. Vernon "Local Depletion of Click Beetle Populations by Pheromone Traps Is Weather and Species Dependent," Environmental Entomology 49(2), 449-460, (31 January 2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvaa006
Received: 9 November 2019; Accepted: 3 January 2020; Published: 31 January 2020
JOURNAL ARTICLE
12 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

KEYWORDS
action threshold
Agriotes lineatus
Agriotes obscurus
depletion
wireworm
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top