In addition to scented traps, which have long been used for in-season crop production and were developed by ATK NÖVI researchers, the new environmentally friendly method represents a promising control option for reducing invasive insects that cause significant damage to crop production.
The use of hot traps is effective in the period when the effectiveness of pheromone traps decreases. In this way, protection against bed bugs can be extended for a longer period, helping to reduce pests even further.
Our homes are being invaded by uninvited “smell bugs”.
No one is happy about the uninvited “stink bugs” that have recently invaded our homes in droves in the fall, and are actually not insects, but bed bugs. They do not bite, but simply crawl into apartments from the cold.
They can do a lot of damage to small gardens and aluminum foil tent plantings by sucking out tomatoes, peppers, and other crops.
Recently, several species of invasive insects – such as the marbled bug (Halyomorpha halys) or the wandering bug (Nezara viridula) – have arrived in our country, and since they feel comfortable here, they have multiplied exponentially.
While plant growers are bothered by them all season long, city dwellers mostly encounter them only in the fall, when they congregate in great numbers near homes during their winter migration, to the annoyance of many.
New way of catching
ATK NÖVI researchers have developed a completely new way to trap these types of bed bugs.
The new type of trap, designed and built in-house, is based on the fact that this species is looking for places that guarantee better survival in September-October, that is, during the winter migration period.
These are generally warmer than their surroundings, and are well protected, often man-made monuments and dwellings. The traps developed by the researchers use an artificial heat source to attract insects.
Photo: ELKH
It can also be used by the population
During the development, a thermostatically controlled heating plate was placed inside the trap body, with which the appropriate temperature determined on the basis of their experiments could be constantly ensured, thus simulating a suitable wintering place for bed bugs. Traps are placed during the month of October in front of a wintering location favored by bed bugs, where marbled bugs mainly congregate in large numbers. In addition to the artificially heated traps, unheated control traps were placed.
According to their daily activity, bed bugs entered the hot traps in much greater numbers during the sunny noon hours.
On an average trapping day, during just five hours of operation, 13 percent of the average number of marbled insects recorded near the trapping area were attracted to the hot traps.
The new trap is completely environmentally friendly and does not contain any toxic chemicals and can be used by the general public.
The publication presenting the results is Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae Published in an international scientific journal.
