Imperial Valley Areawide Pest Monitoring
Since the first week of August 2024, the UCCE Entomology program at Imperial County has maintained a yellow sticky trap network across the Imperial Valley. This trap network aimed to facilitate landscape-level monitoring of the population dynamics of adult whiteflies, western flower thrips, flea beetles, and aphids throughout the year. The trap set up in the field consists of a 6 X 12 in (15.2 x 30.5 cm) yellow sticky trap (Olson Products, Medina, OH), shaped into a cylinder, attached to a wooden stake using a binder clip, and positioned about 60 cm above the ground (Fig. 1A and 1B). The traps are distributed throughout the Imperial Valley, covering the major agricultural locations (Fig. 1C). Insects that are attracted to the yellow color of the traps and those that land on the surface of the trap during the flight get trapped on its sticky surface. The traps are replaced weekly and are examined in the laboratory under a stereo microscope to count the pest population.
Fig. 1 A & B) Yellow sticky traps in various fields, and C) Trap locations across the Imperial Valley.
Insect count data from these traps identify the adult insect activity of targeted pests around the field. Since several biological and physical factors and farm operations (insecticide sprays, dust from the land preparation, crop harvest, etc.) can influence insect counts in the traps, the insect numbers in sticky traps do not always strongly correlate to the actual infestation levels in the grower’s field. Despite this, the trap counts are a valuable indication of adult insects’ movement across the landscape. Moreover, collecting the trap data across multiple years will help establish a baseline of pest activity across the season. This historical pest data can then be compared with current pest activity in the traps to identify population trends. The traps are also screened for potential invasive insect pests, including Asian citrus psyllids, spotted lanternflies, Mexican fruit flies, etc.
This project is supported by the Imperial County Agricultural Benefit Program grant for 3 years (2024-27).