Automated traps for pest monitoring in Québec apple orchards

Description

Automated traps theoretically increase monitoring accuracy, allow for better targeting of pesticide treatments at a lower cost, reduce the number of field visits (longer monitoring intervals), and facilitate sharing of monitoring data while maintaining its accuracy. The aim of this project is to measure the potential of this technology and extrapolate it to an apple-monitoring network. The five parameters identified above will be measured for three years using a monitoring network for five species on a minimum of seven sites in Québec’s main apple-growing regions. Various types of automated attractant traps (by Spensa, Trapview, and IRDA) will be compared to standard monitoring traps for the following pests (excluding cases of incompatibility of a system with certain pests): apple sawflies, apple maggots, obliquebanded leafrollers, codling moths, and dogwood borers. The IRDA trap is a homemade assembly consisting of a trap, a camera, a modem, and commonly available accessories. The comparisons will serve to determine the recommended methods for the tested technologies on the farm and in Québec’s apple R&D and knowledge transfer network.

Objective(s)

• The general objective is to set up a network for testing five types of traps (three automated traps, one homemade semi-automated trap, and a standard trap) for monitoring apple sawflies, apple maggots, obliquebanded leafrollers, codling moths, and dogwood borers
• For each species and site, the traps will be compared for each of the following parameters:
  • Monitoring precision
  • Number of required visits
  • Data sharing ease
  • Accuracy of monitoring data
  • Cost