Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 2:23 PM
1085

From discovery to application: The use of chemical lures for thrips pest management

David AJ Teulon, teulond@crop.cri.nz1, Rob W. H. M. Van Tol, rob.vantol@wur.nl2, Melanie M Davidson, davidsond@crop.cri.nz1, Nigel B Perry, perryn@crop.cri.nz1, and Willem Jan De Kogel, willemjan.dekogel@wur.nl2. (1) NZ Institute for Crop & Food Research, Private Bag 4704, Christchurch, New Zealand, (2) Plant Research International, P.O. Box 16, Wageningen, Netherlands

Recent discoveries of new thrips attractive chemicals or lures has led to a deepening interest in their use for thrips pest management in areas such as improved monitoring, push-pull, lure and kill, and lure and infect technologies, and surveillance for invasive organisms. We have been researching the responses of three thrips species (Thrips obscuratus, Thrips tabaci, Frankliniella occidentalis) to a range of newly discovered attractive odours in the laboratory, in glasshouses and in open field bioassays. We have further tested selected attractants under typical growing conditions in glasshouse and field crops and have observed increased thrips catches of up to 70 times in traps baited with attractive odours. A greater understanding of the behavioural response of thrips to these odours, including the intrinsic factors that may affect these responses, as well as an optimal trap design and odour formulation, will be essential for the integration of semiochemical-based approaches into thrips management programmes.


Species 1: Thysanoptera Thripidae Thrips obscuratus (New Zealand flower thrips)
Species 2: Thysanoptera Thripidae Thrips tabaci (onion thrips)
Species 3: Thysanoptera Thripidae Frankliniella occidentalis (western flower thrips)