Comparison of the effectiveness of commercial and homemade traps in attracting Deroceras agreste in the lettuce field of Mazandaran province

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Agricultural Zoology Research Department, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran

2 Plant Protection Research Department, Mazandaran Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Sari, Iran

Abstract

Slugs are the most important pest of lettuce fields in the north of the country, and feed on different parts of lettuce plants, including leaves, stems, roots, and seeds, and destroy them. Currently, common chemical pesticides are used to control them. Nowadays, the use of non-chemical methods, such as attracting and catching slugs by trapping, in order to reduce the consumption of pesticides is necessary. In this regard, the efficiency of one type of commercial trap and two types of homemade traps with and without bait was compared against Deroceras agreste Linnaeus. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with eight treatments and four replications in 2019 and 2020 in field conditions. According to the results of simple and combined analysis of variance, among the treatments, green commercial trap with bait and green homemade box trap with bait (with total mean number of slugs captured, 76.5 and 75.6 in two years, respectively), had the highest attraction without significant difference from each other and the colorless plastic bottle trap (with total mean number of slugs captured, 29.8 in two years) had the least attraction. Also, green commercial with non-alcoholic beer bait and homemade green box trap with non-alcoholic beer with attracting and trapping the more slugs caused less damage to leaves (7.6 and 6.8 % in two years, respectively) and more yield (with means 13.1 and 11.5 kg/m2 in two years, respectively). The traps with bait compared the traps without bait and the green homemade box traps with bait compared with the cream box traps with bait were significantly more effective in attracting of slugs. Therefore, it is possible to use an inexpensive homemade green box trap with non-alcoholic beer, which has the same efficiency as commercial trap, to reduce the population and control slugs in lettuce fields.

Keywords

References

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Plant Pest Research
Volume 12, Issue 4
February 2023
Pages 51-64

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 October 2022
  • Revise Date: 10 January 2023
  • Accept Date: 12 January 2023

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