Use of Light Trap for Controlling Cabbage Pests

Abstract

Cabbage leaf caterpillars (Plutella xylostella L.) and cabbage head caterpillars (Crocidolomia binotalis Zell.) are key pests of cabbage in Indonesia. Crop loss due to both pests can reach as high as 50-100%. In general, the pests control done by the farmers is still based on the use of insecticides. Therefore, it is necessary to identify another method that is environmentally friendly. This study aimed at determining the effectiveness of the light trap in controlling P. xylostella and C. binotalis. The experiment was conducted at the Margahayu Experimental Garden, the Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute in Lembang (1,250 m asl.), from March to July 2018. The experiment was designed using the paired comparison with two treatments. The treatments tested were: (A) using light traps + control threshold and (B) without light traps + sprayed with insecticide twice a week. Each treatment consisted of six replications. The results showed that the use of light traps was able to suppress the population of P. xylostella and S. litura larvae and egg masses of C. binotalis. It also reduced the frequency of insecticide spray by 81.82% and insecticide costs by 77.61 %. Cabbage cultivation using a light trap could maintain cabbage yield equivalent to yield on the treatment used insecticides twice a week and gave more profitable than insecticide spray twice a week. Therefore, the use of a light trap for controlling lepidopteran pests in cabbage cultivation was properly adopted.

Mass Trapping Lepidopteran Pests with Light Traps, with Focus on Tortricid Forest Pests: What If?

“…Based on budget itemizations available in some mass trapping studies [18,24,26,39,41,73,99], a simple approach is proposed whereby the incremental yield of crop plants in plots treated with LTs (Y = Y LTmt -Y control , in $) is assumed to be dependent on a single factor:…”

“…Parameters related to Y were assessed in the majority of studies in Table 2 (>60% before and after 1980), including the density of eggs/larvae in offspring generations, proportion of damaged plants, yield estimates, and reduction in the number of insecticide applications (references in Table 2). The efficacy of LT mt is often distance-dependent: crop damage is the highest further away from mass trapping plots [21,24,26,41,59,63]. Some mass trapping studies did not record adult abundance, focusing instead on measurable consequences of LT mt on Y [21,24,53].…”

“…The efficacy of LT mt is often distance-dependent: crop damage is the highest further away from mass trapping plots [21,24,26,41,59,63]. Some mass trapping studies did not record adult abundance, focusing instead on measurable consequences of LT mt on Y [21,24,53]. The numbers of mass-trapped females do not need to be recorded to assess the benefit of mass trapping, provided that the strong attraction of target pests to traps deployed in LT mt is demonstrated.…”

Drip irrigation system: useful technique to improve chili production

“…The low population of S. litura found in crops was probably caused by the effective used of light traps in trapping the imago of S. litura, and preventing them to infest the target plants. Light traps are quite effective for controlling cabbage pests S. litura and Plutella xylostella [27]. The pathogenic fungus Cercospora sp.…”

Short communication: The preference and functional response of Sycanus aurantiacus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) on three prey types in laboratory conditions

“…According to the study, cabbage productions in Bali Province varied between 2018 and 2020 (Anon 2020). Several insect pests reported attacking cabbage crops include the cabbage leaf caterpillar, Plutella xylostella (Prabaningrum and Moekasan 2021), the cabbage heart caterpillar, Crocidolomia pavonana (Uelese et al 2014), armyworm, Spodoptera litura Fab. (Chen et al 2021), earthworm, Agrotis ipsilon Hufnagel.…”