Real-time monitoring of the plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar Herbst (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Continuous twenty-four hour monitoring of insect populations in field conditions provides a better understanding of daily insect activity and also has the potential to improve the precision and efficiency of local pest control. The challenge is to devise a system capable of monitoring insect populations that can operate with minimal human input and within a reasonable budget. To attain this goal, the ‘lobster-pot’ trap top of the Whalon-modified Tedder’s pyramid trap has been extensively redesigned to carry a motion sensing trigger and a camera capable of capturing images of anything entering the trap, along with adding a timestamp to the image so that the precise point of entry is known. Mark-release-recapture results using plum curculio and sixteen of these traps in the field will be presented. The new trap design uses only 6 AA batteries and 4 C batteries to provide one month of power, and the entire trap costs less than $150. More significantly, the manufacturer of the camera technology has already developed new cameras capable of transmitting images via wireless internet, so real-time field monitoring of plum curculio trapping by a single, central researcher or grower is potentially feasible.