Journal article 333 views 39 downloads
Visual modelling can optimise the appearance and capture efficiency of sticky traps used to manage insect pests
,
William Allen ,
ALEXANDER DEARDEN
Journal of Pest Science, Volume: 96, Issue: 2
Swansea University Authors:
Alex Dearden, Martyn Wood, Henry Frend, Tariq Butt , William Allen , ALEXANDER DEARDEN
-
PDF | Version of Record
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Download (1.3MB)
DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s10340-023-01604-w
Abstract
Sticky traps are one of the most important tools for monitoring and mass trapping of insect pests. Their effectiveness depends on attracting and capturing target pests efficiently. Trap colour strongly affects capture rates, but currently a principled approach to identifying optimal trap colour for...
| Published in: | Journal of Pest Science |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1612-4758 1612-4766 |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2023
|
| Online Access: |
Check full text
|
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62758 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Abstract: |
Sticky traps are one of the most important tools for monitoring and mass trapping of insect pests. Their effectiveness depends on attracting and capturing target pests efficiently. Trap colour strongly affects capture rates, but currently a principled approach to identifying optimal trap colour for a given pest and growing context is lacking. Here we propose that modelling pest colour vision enables identification of trap colours that optimise pest capture rates. We test this novel approach to trap design in field trials on Western flower thrips (WFT) Frankiniella occidentalis, an economically damaging pest of agriculture and horticulture worldwide. Prior studies have reported that WFT prefer blue and yellow sticky traps, aligning with recent evidence that WFT have trichromatic colour vision with peak sensitivities in the UV, blue and green portion of the visual spectrum and a blue-green colour opponent mechanism. Therefore, we hypothesised that a shade of blue that maximally stimulates the blue photoreceptor whilst minimally stimulating the green photoreceptor would improve sticky trap capture rates, while a shade of blue that decreased the opponent response would reduce capture rates. In three field experiments, we found strong support for this hypothesis: the optimised blue colour captured 1.3–2.6 times more WFT than current commercial trap colours. Our results also demonstrated that visual modelling can identify optimally contrasting colours for two-colour traps that further improve capture rates. This study provides a novel and principled approach to the design of visual traps that could be extended to other pest management contexts. |
|---|---|
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
The authors would like to thank W. B. Chambers and E. C. Drummond for providing polytunnels, support and information throughout the studies. We would also like to thank Agrisense Ltd. and Razbio Ltd. for providing blue sticky traps and Thrips Charm lures, respectively. Thank you also Jem Print for facilitating our colour swatch and trap production requirements throughout our long association. |
| Issue: |
2 |