Competitive-trapping: a novel one-step method for estimating absolute density of insects

We have discovered how relative captures in identical but competing monitoring traps can translate into estimates of absolute density of insects across the area where the set of traps operates. The method is independent of shifts in trap efficiency with, e.g., weather and numbers of virgin females, so long as those variables shift identically across the set of traps. This method of quantifying absolute density of organisms through competition of attractive or arrestive points in space promises to be applicable to a wide range of animals: pests, beneficials, and possibly endangered species that cannot be harmed. Preliminary data are offered for codling moth.