Monitoring for insects in canola | part 2

Shelter traps are very basic. It can be a whole range of different objects that are used in this context. So I’ve got a couple of examples here a tile and a pot but it could be a piece of old carpet Hessian bag that’s used. And what we’re trying to do is retain the moisture under that tile or pot that will attract those range of insects that are dependent on the moisture. The insects that we are targeting with these shelter traps are things like slugs, slaters, earwigs and perhaps millipedes so all those ground-dwelling or soil-dwelling insects. We’d sit maybe three or four across the paddock in hot spots that we know from our past history.

This is a very simple monitoring 01:14 - technique that can be used for those pests that rely on moisture and we can provide valuable information prior to the crop emerging. This is a pitfall trap, it’s commonly used to collect insects that are the ground dwellers or the residents in the paddock. It’s a matter of just having a cup or a container that you dig into the ground and then level the top level with the soil surface and then some liquid we you commonly use alcohol and a little bit of water in them. We can leave them out in the paddock for maybe three or four days to a week. Usually you have to try and pick a time when it’s not going to rain.

Typically we would collect things like earwigs, slaters we might 02:25 - collect some of the beneficials like the carabid beetles or spiders. So this thing this is good to monitor be put out maybe two to three weeks prior to the crop being planted and it gives the information on what potential pests and beneficials that we might see as the crop emerges. So this is a bait trap the benefits of using this are that we’re attracting those range of subsoil insect pests often the larvae stage that are attracted to the bait and they would normally be attracted to the plant roots or to the young seedlings as they emerge. So this bait has been buried about four or five days and if we dig it out carefully we will see evidence of either the bait being eaten or the presence of the different larvae. The pest larvae would most likely be in close proximity to the to the bait or actually still feeding on the bait.

It gives us information prior to the crop being sown 04:03 - about the level of risk that those pests could damage the crop. .