Some aspects of trap application in integrated control of thrips in protected ground

In the course of summarizing the results of the 2021–2024 tests on collecting thrips with a synthetic attractant using sticky traps in protected ground conditions, it was noted that the insects are distributed nonuniformly. By nonuniform distribution we mean the presence of areas where the number of thrips exceeds the average value by more than three standard deviations. The occurrence of limited areas with a high number of thrips in greenhouses is due to the emergence of colonies from single insects at the beginning of the season. Probably, the main reasons for the appearance of outbreaks are the very low number of thrips after “winter frosts” or effective treatment with chemicals. The number of thrips is very insignificant, only single specimens remain alive, which manifest themselves as a “colony-forming unit” in separate, fairly far-distant places. Then, most of their colonies do not spread far from the primary outbreak for some time - several generations. It is the presence of only a few living insects per several tens of square meters at the beginning of the “invasion” or at the beginning of the growing season that leads to such a large unevenness appearing at a distance from several meters to several tens of meters. 

Collecting some of the thrips with traps with attractants at the very beginning of the season may help to keep the pest population below the economic threshold of harmfulness in an integrated protection system without the use of chemical pesticides throughout the season.

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