Comparison of yellow sticky trap traits and placement for monitoring Anthonomus eugenii (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) adults in outdoor peppers (Capsicum spp.)

Opportune detection of Anthonomus eugenii is a fundamental aspect of any management program to this pest. Yellow traps are the most common monitoring strategy, and its efficacy is related with the trap design and placement within crops. However, there’s limited information on this. Two outdoor experiments were performed to determine the efficiency of traps with six different shapes (circle, square, diamond, ellipse, rectangle, and triangle) and seven frame colors (yellow, dark green, black, red, white, purple, and blue); seven to the traps placement at four orientations (North, South, East and West), five aside distances from the bed center (0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 cm aside to the inter-bed space) and six heights (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and100 cm) on A. eugenii adults. There wasn’t significant difference among shapes and orientations. Traps with yellow, dark green and black frames had the highest number of insects. For the aside distance, the plots were categorized according to their width as narrow (54–65 cm) and wide (71–81 cm), the highest insects caught was exhibited on traps at 0–20 and 0–40 cm, respectively. Regarding the traps height, they were classified according to their height as short (62–64 cm), medium (78–82 cm) and tall (90–92 cm), the highest insects caught was exhibited on traps at 20–40, 40–60, and 40–80 cm, respectively. Regression analyzes indicate that catches decrease as the traps are installed into the inter-bed space and above the canopy. This study provides novel information to improve outdoor programs to monitor A. eugenii.