Pheromone trap cuts worm loss
Pheromone trap cuts worm loss
PHEROMONE trapping could soon help potato and cereal growers significantly reduce crop losses caused by wireworms.
Work in the UK and Italy, jointly funded by the British Potato Council, shows a novel pheromone developed in Hungary can be used to help detect the presence of the troublesome pest.
The traps can be used to attract the wireworms click beetle adult phase during the summer before planting. Results are ten times more sensitive than soil sampling or bait trapping.
"Using a sophisticated pitfall trap we can get a simple measure of pest threat, which is species specific thanks to the use of appropriate pheromones, so needs very little expertise or labour input and can detect very low populations," said Bill Parker of ADAS.
A commercial product could be available soon, if field-tests this summer succeed. Mr Parker hopes to have 500 traps available for use in the UK. *