TY - JOUR

T1 - If only you could catch me – Catch me if you can

T2 - Monitoring aphids in protected cucumber cultivations by means of sticky traps

AU - Dieckhoff, Christine

AU - Meyhöfer, Rainer

N1 - The project was supported by funds of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL, FKZ: 2814903515) based on a decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) under the innovation support program.

PY - 2023/5/11

Y1 - 2023/5/11

N2 - Aphids are important pests in many greenhouse and field crops. For plant protection, early detection of relevant species and reliable assessment of population development throughout the season is mandatory to address countermeasures in time. In practice, coloured sticky cards or pan traps are frequently used as monitoring tools, but as well as the flight activity of focal insects, many other factors influence reliable interpretation of trapping data. Since monitoring data have been more and more integrated into automated decision support systems, soundness of insect count data and interpretation of results needs to be reviewed in more detail. Therefore, we investigated the applicability of yellow sticky traps for monitoring of the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii in greenhouse cucumber crop. In separate greenhouse chambers, we infested cucumber plants with Aphis gossypii and installed several yellow sticky traps. Insects were counted on the plants and sticky traps on a weekly basis and number of insects were correlated. Our results indicate mismatches between trap catches and aphid population density especially early in the season, which most likely is related to immigration of winged aphids into the greenhouse. The following population build-up of the cotton aphid Aphis gossypii on the cucumber plants correlated quite well with counts of alate cotton aphids on the sticky traps. In conclusion, trapping of winged aphids provides valuable information for integrated pest control in the greenhouse. Nevertheless, to avoid wrong interpretation the taxonomic identity of trapped aphids has to be confirmed at all times. Results are further discussed in the context of factors influencing aphid wing development and attraction to yellow sticky traps. Potential strategies to optimize aphid monitoring with coloured sticky traps are proposed.

AB - Aphids are important pests in many greenhouse and field crops. For plant protection, early detection of relevant species and reliable assessment of population development throughout the season is mandatory to address countermeasures in time. In practice, coloured sticky cards or pan traps are frequently used as monitoring tools, but as well as the flight activity of focal insects, many other factors influence reliable interpretation of trapping data. Since monitoring data have been more and more integrated into automated decision support systems, soundness of insect count data and interpretation of results needs to be reviewed in more detail. Therefore, we investigated the applicability of yellow sticky traps for monitoring of the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii in greenhouse cucumber crop. In separate greenhouse chambers, we infested cucumber plants with Aphis gossypii and installed several yellow sticky traps. Insects were counted on the plants and sticky traps on a weekly basis and number of insects were correlated. Our results indicate mismatches between trap catches and aphid population density especially early in the season, which most likely is related to immigration of winged aphids into the greenhouse. The following population build-up of the cotton aphid Aphis gossypii on the cucumber plants correlated quite well with counts of alate cotton aphids on the sticky traps. In conclusion, trapping of winged aphids provides valuable information for integrated pest control in the greenhouse. Nevertheless, to avoid wrong interpretation the taxonomic identity of trapped aphids has to be confirmed at all times. Results are further discussed in the context of factors influencing aphid wing development and attraction to yellow sticky traps. Potential strategies to optimize aphid monitoring with coloured sticky traps are proposed.

KW - Aphis gossypii

KW - Cucumis sativus

KW - greenhouse crops

KW - decision support systems

KW - integrated pest management

KW - action threshold

KW - population development

KW - yellow sticky traps

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160276673&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/horticulturae9050571

DO - 10.3390/horticulturae9050571

M3 - Article

VL - 9

JO - Horticulturae

JF - Horticulturae

IS - 5

M1 - 571

ER -