How are yellow water traps distributed in orchards or fields to capture insects : randomly or following a specific method to obtain good results?
How you distribute your traps will depend on what you are trying to find out about. If you are looking within a field, I would suggest a regularly spaced distribution with traps at least 20m apart. If you are comparing lots of fields, then randomly placing them in the field might be better (subject to accounting for edge effects etc).
Be aware also that using coloured traps will skew the type of insects you collect. Yellow traps are excellent for collection insects looking for food (i.e. searching for flowers), but may not be so useful for other insects. Also, if you are using traps to compare different sites, using coloured traps may bias your results towards 'hungry' insects where floral resources are less available.
Hi Billal:
Yellow water traps are very good to capture parasitic micro hymenoptera and small flying insects. You can place 20 traps on the floor distributed randomly through the plot .The best results are obtained in fields with good coverage of weeds. You can use plastic trays with water and detergent to break the surface tensión. Yellow water traps are better than sticky traps because you can collect and preserve the specimens in perfect conditions.
Good luck
Luis Miguel
Good morning,
Usually, when I use sticky traps in vineyards for leafhoppers I place them in a regular grid pattern; the distance between sampling points depends on the movement ability of the target insect (the greater the movement, the greater the distance). You should consider a 10% tolerance: for instance, in a square pattern of 20 m side, you may place traps at 18-22 m from each other. I never used water traps, but they should work just in the same way (colour attractiveness).
How you distribute your traps will depend on what you are trying to find out about. If you are looking within a field, I would suggest a regularly spaced distribution with traps at least 20m apart. If you are comparing lots of fields, then randomly placing them in the field might be better (subject to accounting for edge effects etc).
Be aware also that using coloured traps will skew the type of insects you collect. Yellow traps are excellent for collection insects looking for food (i.e. searching for flowers), but may not be so useful for other insects. Also, if you are using traps to compare different sites, using coloured traps may bias your results towards 'hungry' insects where floral resources are less available.
Dear Mark,
Thank you for your response, have you got any references talking about setting up traps with 20 m between them because I want to study population dynamic of Myzus persicae in a peach orchard.
These two articles are generally useful:
Bowie, M.H. (1999) Effects of distance from field edge on aphidophagous insects in a wheat crop and observations on trap design and placement. International Journal of Pest Management, 45, 69–73.
Laubertie, E. a., Wratten, S.D. & Sedcole, J.R. (2006) The role of odour and visual cues in the pan-trap catching of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae). Annals of Applied Biology, 148, 173–178.
I used 20 m gaps between trial plots in my work, but that is slightly different. Am in the process of writing another study with 20m spacing.
Ramsden, M.W., Menéndez, R., Leather, S.R. & Wäckers, F. (2015) Optimizing field margins for biocontrol services: The relative role of aphid abundance, annual floral resources, and overwinter habitat in enhancing aphid natural enemies. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 199, 94–104.
Basically you want as many trapping points as you can, but you also must avoid pseudo-replication. Fewer trapping points in more fields is generally better than many trapping points in a small number of fields, but you'll need to work out what is feasible for you. I would suggest that 20 m between traps is really the minimum distance.
Will you be recording predator & parasitoid numbers as well?
Dear Mark,
Thank you very much but I need these works can you send them to me. Also, I work only on green peach aphid, in fact, I read in two articles about zigzag technique in visual control of insects and I wonder if we could apply it in water traps.
Poligui, René Noel, Frédéric Francis, Gembloux Agro-bio Tech, Université De Liège, and Brachycaudus Kaltenbach. 2012. “Etude de La Diversité et Des Plantes Hôtes de L ’ Entomofaune D ’ Un Verger Conservatoire.” (1):135–47.
Rakhshani, E. Hsan et al. 2008. “Distribution and Diversity of Wheat Aphid Parasitoids ( Hymenoptera : Braconidae : Aphidiinae ) in Iran.” Eur. J. Entomol. 105:863–70.
Best wishes
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