Kairomone And Camera Trapping New Zealand Flower Thrips, Thrips Obscuratus

Simple SummaryCamera traps using new insect attractant lures made from the smell of ripe peaches were used to provide daily counts of New Zealand Flower Thrips from online images of the sticky base of the traps. Software and manual counting were used to determine arriving thrips counts, which fluctuated daily but showed peaks in 2013 up to 1000 thrips in a trap in one day. Application of knockdown insecticides inhibited further thrips arrival in three peach blocks, according to the camera traps. Dose response experiments with the peach lure to attract thrips showed higher catches with more lure, within 24 h, up to 11-fold above the catch in unbaited traps. A 32-fold increase in thrips per tree was achieved over the control. Camera traps have huge potential in integrated pest management, by providing daily phenology without trap visits.This project investigated how kairomone lures, camera traps, and counting software could together contribute to pest management. Images of cumulative daily catch of New Zealand Flower Thrips (NZFT) attracted to a ripe peach lactone (6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-one; 6-PAP) were automatically loaded to the internet and compared with scanned bases checked weekly using in-house software and manual counting. Camera traps were able to provide thrips counts equivalent to delta traps, but daily and remotely. An 11-fold greater NZFT count occurred within 24 h in passive traps after polyethylene sachets loaded with 250 mg of 6-PAP were placed in trees. Intensive trapping, by placing 1, 2, 4, and 8 traps per tree (500 mg/trap), resulted in a maximum 32-fold increase in thrips per tree. While 6-PAP has proved to be a useful tool for monitoring NZFT numbers, our results suggest that it is not likely to be suitable for mass trapping. Future research should investigate NZFT behavior to better understand population movement on an area-wide basis. Camera traps can be a valuable tool for recording insect flight activity remotely, but the number of traps required for statistically reliable estimates may be prohibitive.