FAQS
By using mass trapping on my farm, I will be attracting flies from all over the area, which will cause more damage to my crop.
This is completely untrue. If an insect is attracted to a trap and attractant from a long distance, it is hard to imagine that upon nearing the trap, it would prefer to stay outside it and damage our crop rather than reach the substance that has attracted it from a long distance away (the attractant inside the trap).
With our years of experience in deployment of mass trapping, we can assure you that this situation only occurs if a trap is so poorly designed that it is actually difficult for the insect to enter the trap, and/or easy for it to leave once caught. This phenomenon frequently occurs when home-made traps are used.
All the products manufactured by Probodelt have been subjected to rigorous design processes and evaluation of their effectiveness in the field, allowing you to maximise the entry of target insects while minimising or outright eliminating exits once they have been captured.
If I use mass trapping on my farm, but my neighbour does not, the system does not work.
The problem with neighbouring plots can arise because these plots are not controlled and act as a reservoir for the pest, generating a flow of pest insects from the reservoir plot to your plot. In these cases there will always have a problem, whatever control strategy is used. Mass trapping allows any such flows of pest insects from a reservoir farm to your own to be captured as soon as possible, and if it is necessary to support mass trapping with chemical treatments, these will have a greater effect on the pest.
If the neighbour is not using mass trapping, but has effective control over the pest, it will in no case have a negative effect on your production.
My plot is small, will mass trapping work for me?
When it comes to pest control, whatever the method used, the maxim that the larger the surface area, the better the results and the lower the cost is generally true. The technique of mass trapping is no exception and works best when applied over a large area as a whole. This does not imply that on small plots the mass trapping technique does not work, but, like all other monitoring systems, it will work better on larger areas.
Do I need to treat if I use mass trapping?
It will always depend on the pest pressure. This is a very difficult question to answer with certainty. It is clear that mass trapping will reduce the number of phytosanitary treatments, as well as the damage caused by the pest, but several factors will determine whether or not the mass trapping should be supported with chemical treatments:
- Pest pressure.
- Sensitivity of the crop or variety.
- Level of tolerance to pest damage.
Do I need to monitor the pest if I use mass trapping?
It is always advisable to monitor the pest, whatever control system is used. With monitoring, you may detect strong or unexpected increases in the pest population, and can carry out a phytosanitary treatment if necessary to minimise crop losses.
The product contains insecticide, is it authorised for organic use?
Yes, the insecticide contained in the Ceratitis Conetrap and Bactrocera Conetrap is Lambda cyhalothrin, authorised for organic cultivation under the COMMISSION ENFORCEMENT REGULATION (EU) 2016/673 of 29 April 2016 provided that it is contained in a trap with a specific attractant for Ceratitis capitata or Bactrocera oleae. We also have the CAAE and INTERECO certificates that accredit its authorisation in organic production. You can download the certificates here.
Mass trapping is only used in organic farming.iva sólo se utiliza en cultivo ecológico.
This is completely untrue. Mass trapping is a tool widely used in conventional agriculture as a basis for the control of various pests, including the fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) and the olive fruit fly(Bactrocera oleae).
What is the difference between a food attractant and a pheromone?
A food attractant, as the name suggests, mimics the compounds on which the pest feeds, while pheromones mimic the substances emitted by sexually active females to attract males.
Therefore, using food attractants makes it possible to attract both males and females (a higher percentage of the latter, as they have higher energy requirements), whereas pheromones only attract males.
When applying the mass trapping technique, whenever possible, it is preferable to use a food attractant rather than a pheromone, because this will also capture females and improve pest control.
When should I install mass trapping products?
As soon as the persistence of the product allows. For example, in the case of Ceratitis Conetrap the product has a persistence of 6 months, so the recommendation is to apply the product 5 months before the expected harvest date.
In the case of Bactrocera Conetrap place the product on the tree in the spring (April - June) and keep it there for a whole year, when it will be replaced by a new one. After one year in the field, the Bactrocera Conetrap will still capture 50% of its capacity, so it is advisable not to remove the product from the tree until one year after application.
If I see a low number of catches in the mass trapping traps, does it mean that the system is not working?
No, it's the other way around. Sometimes we like to see a trap full of catches, which can lead us to believe that the product is working very well. The reality is not so simple and it is the final % of damage that will provide the answer. Traps with a very high number of captures indicate that the problem is serious; either the dosage has been wrong (with few traps per unit area) or there is a very high pest pressure in the plot. Traps with few captures, as long as there is no damage to the fruit, indicate that the system is working well and that effective pest control has been achieved.
Can the trap be reused for more than one year?
The only part of the trap that can be reused is the base. The lid contains the contact insecticide, which at the end of the campaign will be out of stock as well as the attractant. Therefore, the insecticide-treated lid and the attractant have to be renewed every year, while the base can be reused.
By what percentage will the damage be reduced, if I use mass trapping?
It depends on the volume of production, pest pressure, susceptibility of the variety, etc. — all these variables make it impossible to give a damage reduction figure.
However, given that the percentage of damage may be too ambiguous a value, what do we observe on similar farms where one has mass trapping and the other does not?
We see that the flight of adults is lower in the area of mass trapping, milder population peaks, reduction or elimination of treatments and greater difficulty for the pest to recompose itself after a chemical treatment.
We obtain a better quality product, with less damage caused by the pest and we have reduced or eliminated chemical treatments.
