Sticky traps, pest control

Use biological control agents (see p.97) to deal with regular pest problems. Remove sticky traps before introducing flying biological control agents. 

Cut away and destroy severely infested plant parts. Use blue sticky traps to monitor and trap pests. Encourage native predators such as pirate bugs, lacewings, and lady beetles. Insecticidal soap sprays give some control of thrips populations, but may affect beneficials as well. To limit thrips infestation, dig corms early in fall and cut off tops before thrips move down into corms. Bag and discard debris. Dust corms with pyrethrin to control thrips in storage. Or soak them in a Lysol solution (IV2 tablespoons in 1 gallon water) for several hours before planting. 

Flower buds die petals distorted growth stunted. Cause Thrips. Several species of tiny thrips infest irises Japanese irises are especially susceptible. Thrips feed on inner folds of leaves, causing stunted growth and russet or sooty areas on leaves. Tops of plants eventually turn brown and die. Flowers may appear discolored, flecked with white, or deformed. These pests are difficult to control, for they burrow into plant tissue. Don t buy sickly looking irises that may be infested. Remove and destroy severely infested plant parts. Use blue sticky traps to monitor and trap pests. Applications of insecticidal soap may provide some control once pests are spotted in traps. 

Folded burlap strips can also trap pests as they travel up the trunk. Cut a 20" wide strip of burlap fabric and wrap it around the trunk. Tie it to the tree with a cord in the middle of the strip, and let the top half fold down over the bottom, forming a pocket that will trap pests. You can apply a solution of parasitic nematodes to the burlap for added control. Seal bands at the edges with a layer of sticky ointment to prevent other pests from crawling under them. 

Starches like ordinary baking flour and potato starch dextrin work to control insect pests by gumming up the leaf surfaces, trapping and holding the critters until they die. Flour is an old-fashioned pest control, but dextrin is the object of recent attention by researchers looking for new and safe insecticides. Dextrin is actually a sticky sugar extracted from potato starch. 

Insect sticky traps verified the control results for one year. Treatment with Dichlorvos no-pest strips was also successful but needed to be repeated regularly to maintain control. These Dichlorvos strips were used to treat rooms within a building according to specifications on the label. 

The apple fruit moth, Argyresthia conjugella, is an invasive pest that bores into immature apples and eats them from within. One of its sex pheromones is (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate, which is used commercially to attract and trap the adult insects. Insect attractants are important chemicals for use in "organic" farming, because sticky insect traps baited with pheromones are allowed for insect control underthe "organic" farming rules. 

Organic growers also use biological control. They are allowed to import natural enemies of pests. This works either through predation or parasitism. This has proven effective for the control of red spider mite and specific caterpillars, and does not affect other insects. And a third technique is to use insect traps ranging from sticky yellow strips to pheromone or sexual lures. The pheromone traps use synthetic extracts of the chemical scents that... 

Disparlure, the sex pheromone of the female gypsy moth, has been used to control the spread of the gypsy moth caterpillar, a pest that has periodically devastated forests in the northeastern United States by defoliating many shade and fruit-bearing trees.The active pheromone is placed in a trap containing a poison or sticky substance, and the male moth is lured to the trap by the pheromone. Such a species-specific method presents a new way of controlling an insect population that avoids the widespread use of harmful, nonspecific pesticides. Disparlure is synthesized by oxidation of an alkene using chemistry presented in Chapter 12. 

Protection Offered Use sticky red spheres in your apple orchard to monitor the arrival and departure of apple maggot flies this knowledge is useful if you choose to spray your trees to control apple maggots. You can also control these pests by concentrating several traps in small areas. 

Traps covered with sticky coating strategically placed among your plants will capture sufficient numbers of certain pests to control their damage. Originally used to monitor pest population fluctuations, sticky boards work well as controls when concentrated in small areas. 

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