EFFECT OF STICKY TRAPS IN MONITORING INSECTS AND THEIR PERFORMANCE ON BITTER GOURD YIELD

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka from March to July 2022 with sticky traps to investigate the abundance of insects and their effect on bitter gourd. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five replications and consisted of five treatments i.e. T : Yellow sticky trap, T 2 : Blue sticky trap, T ii

3 : White sticky trap, T 4 : Red sticky trap, T : and control. Results showed that nine insect pest species belonging to nine families and five orders infested the various growth stages of the bitter gourd crop. Of these, five species namely aphid (Aphis craccivora), thrips (Thrips palmi), red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Genn.) and melon fruit fly (Bactrocera cucurbitae) respectively caused 27.30%, 15.41%, 5.92%, 21.84% and 17.88% plant infestation. A total of nine species of insect were found as pollinators belonging to seven families of four orders. Among the pollinators, bees (Apis cerana, A. florea and A. dorsata) were most significantly highly abundant (52.43 %) compared to other species (47.57%). Color sticky traps with high pollinator catches cause a decrease in pollinator population densities in the experimental field. Of the various color sticky traps tested, yellow color sticky traps attracted a significantly higher number of pollinators with a mean population of 15.67. Among the treatments the maximum mean catchments of aphids (258.66 per trap), whiteflies (32.84 per trap), thrips (103.04 per trap), melon fruit fly (12.11 per trap) and red pumpkin beetle (6.22 per trap) were recorded in yellow sticky trap (T ). The use of different sticky traps on bitter gourd significantly influenced yield contributing characters and yield. Highest number of fruits per plant (18.20), single fruit weight per plant (106.00 g), minimum fruit infestation by number (10.99 %) and weight basis (10.98 %) and maximum fruit yield (18.38 t ha 1 ) were found with the treatment yellow color sticky traps. However, considering yield and attraction of insect, T (Blue sticky trap) also found effective for management of insect pest on bitter gourd.