Management of the hairy rose beetle, Tropinota squalida (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) by mass trapping in apple orchards

Abstract

The potential of mass trapping for the management of the hairy rose beetle, Tropinota squalida (Scopoli)was evaluated in commercial apple orchards in Jordan. A funnel trap baited with floral attractants was tested foreffective capture of the beetle. Efficacy of the floral attractants compared to apple flowers was tested using anolfactometer. Factors affecting trap effectiveness including: trap color, placement, and baiting with floral attractantswere evaluated in apple field trials. The potential of mass trapping using different densities of traps/h. was examinedon large scale field trials over two growing seasons. Results showed that dispensers with flower attractants weremore attractive to the beetles than apple flowers. Field trials showed that the beetles were highly attracted to blue,white and yellow traps compared to green and orange ones. The traps placed on the ground attracted more beetlesthan traps suspended on the tree. Moreover, traps baited with attractants were more attractive than traps with no bait.In the mass trapping trials, percentage of damaged flowers by the beetles was reduced to 3.5% when 50 traps/h wereused in the treated field plots compared to 8.3% in the controls with no traps in the first growing season and to 4.7%in the treated plots compared to 15.3% in the control plots in the second growing season. These results indicated thatmass trapping technique has the potential to be incorporated in an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program toreduce the damage caused by the hairy rose beetle in apple orchards.