Insect Trap Catch Improvement with Light-Emitting Diode Modification

Abstract

Insect traps are vital component of many entomological programs for detection and monitoring of insect populations. We equipped yellow (YC), blue (BC) sticky card (BC) with 530 nm lime green (LED-YC) and 470 nm blue (LED-BC) light-emitting diodes, respectively that increased trap catches of several insect pests. The LED-YC traps caught 1.3, 1.4, 1.8, and 4.8 times more adult greenhouse whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood), sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) biotype B, cotton aphids Gossypium hirsutum (L.), and fungus gnats Bradysia coprophila (Lintner), respectively, compared with standard YC traps. The LED-YC traps did not catch more Eretmocerus spp. than the standard YC traps. Eretmocerus spp. are important B. tabaci parasitoids used in greenhouse biological control programs. For whitefly control in greenhouse the 530 nm lime green LED equipped plastic cup trap designed by Chu et al. (2003) is the better choice than LED-YC trap because it catches few Eretmocerus spp. and Encarsia spp. whitefly parasitoids released for B. tabaci nymph control. The LED-BC traps caught 2.0-2.5 times more adult western flower thrips Franklinella occidentalis (Pergande) compared with the standard BC traps.