Early season monitoring of tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris, in wild hosts using pheromone traps

Authors: George, Justin; Glover, James; Reddy, Gadi V.P.; Johnson, Christopher - Chris; HALL, DAVID - UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH

Submitted to: Insects
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/4/2023
Publication Date: 10/7/2023
Citation: George, J., Glover, J.P., Reddy, G.V., Johnson, C.P., Hall, D.R. 2023. Early season monitoring of tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris, in wild hosts using pheromone traps. Insects. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/14/10/805.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects14100805

Interpretive Summary: Tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera: Miridae) is a major pest of cotton worldwide. It has a wide host range of over 700 plant species in 55 families, including 130 crops of economic importance. During early spring, many of these weeds and wild hosts on field edges act as feeding resources and/or breeding reservoirs for L. lineolaris before they migrate into the main crop during the summer. Managing field edges with weeds is important in preventing early-season infestations of L. lineolaris in cotton to prevent damage to squares and other fruiting structures. Scouting fields for L. lineolaris is time- and labor-intensive, and end-user variability associated with field sampling can lead to inaccuracies. Insect traps that combine visual cues and pheromones are more accurate, sustainable, and economically feasible in contrast to traditional insect detection methods. In this study, we investigated the application of red or white sticky cards baited with the female-produced sex pheromone to monitor overwintering L. lineolaris populations in early spring. Field experiments demonstrated that the red sticky cards baited with a pheromone blend containing hexyl butyrate, (E)-2-hexenyl butyrate, and (E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal in 4:10:7 ratio are highly effective in trapping L. lineolaris adults in early spring, before row crops are planted, and in monitoring their movement into a cotton crop. Monitoring of L. lineolaris using pheromone traps should help growers to make judicious decisions on insecticide applications to control early pest infestations thereby reducing economic damage to cotton.

Technical Abstract: Tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera: Miridae) has a wide host range of over 700 plant species in 55 families, including 130 crops of economic importance. During early spring, many of these weeds and wild hosts on field edges act as feeding resources and/or breeding reservoirs for L. lineolaris before they migrate into the main crop during the summer. Managing field edges with weeds is important in preventing early-season infestations of L. lineolaris in cotton to prevent damage to squares and other fruiting structures. Scouting fields for L. lineolaris is time- and labor-intensive, and end-user variability associated with field sampling can lead to inaccuracies. Insect traps that combine visual cues and pheromones are more accurate, sustainable, and economically feasible in contrast to traditional insect detection methods. In this study, we investigated the application of red or white sticky cards baited with the female-produced sex pheromone to monitor overwintering L. lineolaris populations in early spring. Field experiments demonstrated that the red sticky cards baited with a pheromone blend containing hexyl butyrate, (E)-2-hexenyl butyrate, and (E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal in 4:10:7 ratio are highly effective in trapping L. lineolaris adults in early spring before row crops are planted, and in monitoring their movement into a cotton crop. Monitoring of L. lineolaris using pheromone traps should help growers to make judicious decisions on insecticide applications to control early pest infestations thereby reducing economic damage to cotton.