The products on this page are helpful to the pest management scout. They help making scouting doable and successful. On these pages are the following product groups:
Monitoring Traps
Yellow and Blue Sticky Traps
Sticky traps are quite valuable to growers. They are used for one of two things: Trapping or monitoring. Putting traps out in numbers can be effective in reducing airborne adult populations of certain pests like whiteflies and fungus gnats by trapping them. If used at the rate of one trap per 250 square feet, though — or one per 1000 square feet in larger or monoculture greenhouses — and checked, pests counted, on a regular schedule, changed as needed, and the results charted, sticky traps can be an effective monitoring tool.
Use yellow sticky traps to trap/monitor most pests. (Includes whiteflies, fungus gnats, shore flies, thrips, winged aphids, leafminers, scales, and many others). But be aware they may inadvertently capture parasitic wasps, midges, and beetles. Use with care. Reduce hang-duration if needed, just be consistent.
Use blue traps are for thrips only, which is helpful if you need to monitor for thrips while excluding the inadvertent capture of parasitoids like Aphidius spp. and other at-risk biocontrols. Hot pink is supposed to be another good color for thrips, but is not a commercially available trap color.
Both colors, yellow and blue, come in a variety of rectangular sizes, with 3"x5" being the most common. Other sizes that we know of are 3"x4", 4"x9", and 8"x12". To learn more about scouting and putting sticky traps to use, see the Scouting Info and Scouting Plan pages. Also check out these ID tips to help you identify what you might capture.
You may purchase yellow and blue traps online now!
Trap Support Stakes
The placement of sticky traps should be either on the surface of the soil (for gnats), or 2-3 inches above the plant canopy. In some crops — those 2 to 8 inches or so — but not all, this allows the use of convenient metal trap stakes. Otherwise you can do what many growers have done for years: Use a bamboo stake and a wooden clothespin.
You may purchase Trap Stakes online now!
Red Spheres
Red spheres are plastic reusable spheres that are coated with a clear sticky product like Tangle Trap (sold separately). They’re meant to resemble an apple which makes sense since they’re used to attract and capture apple maggot adults (flies) whose larvae (maggots) tunnel into and destroy apples.
The spheres are often used signal the right time to apply chemicals (first sign). Some relief, though, can be found without chemicals by using garlic sprays to repel the adults and parasitic nematodes to target the pupae which drop to the ground. Typically use one to six traps per tree, depending on its size. Some red sphere traps use pheromones to attract apple maggot flies more powerfully.
You may purchase Red Spheres online now!
Sticky Tapes
You’ve seen sticky tapes before, right? Hanging in the farmhouse kitchen or in the barn. A short cardboard tube, pull the bottom out and uncoil the strip inside. Hang it up and you’re done. Old fashioned? Maybe. But these sticky tapes can be really effective, especially for the filth breeding flies they’re meant for. Don’t rule them out. You can still find these at hardware, feed, or tack stores.
Sticky Wires
This is another feed store- or tack-store-type item. It’s a fine sticky-coated wire on a reel that is strung above head height in a barn or other similar area. The flies will land on it and decide to stay… forever. We’ve heard good things about this product.
“Tangle Trap” Trap Coating
You can make your own sticky traps and coat your red spheres with a product like this. It is a sticky goo that is painted on nonporous surfaces. This is sort of a pain actually, and the traps will need to be cleaned instead of just thrown away, but you can make any shape or size trap you want like this photo of a huge trap. And it can be whatever color you like. Just paint the trap’s surface yellow — we’re told Rustoleum Yellow #659 is good — or blue, or hot pink, or any color you like and you’re good to go. Want to get started?
You may purchase Tangle Trap online now!
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