ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS RELATED TO INSECT TRAP
Question 1: How effectively Pheromone traps can decline the population level of insects pests?
Answer 1: Pheromone traps are suitable for pest management due to the apparent characteristics of behavioral response of insects to the odors. Mode of communication among insects is smell. It is the odor of plant volatile that insects recognize to lay eggs and/or feed. It is the odor of specific female’s sex glands that invites male for mating and simultaneously prevent other species of insects to mate. The odor/smell associated with specific insects can be recognized and synthesized to mislead insects. Many attractants specific to insects are synthesized and are used in mass trapping measure all over the world.
Question 2: Over which insects our aggregation pheromones – Helure & Attractant Adjuvant are effective?
Answer 2: Our Helure B & Attractant Adjuvant are aggregation pheromone and contain host odors. Host odors are those odors that insects detect to feed and/or to lay eggs. Our host odors are much different than sex pheromones that are commonly sold in the market. Sex pheromones are used to attract only specific adult male members. However, our host odor effectively attracts male and female members both of Tea Mosquito Bugs and Lepidoptera moths. Hence our aggregation pheromone has got wide usage.
Question 3: Does our pheromone trapping system pose serious threat to predators or other insects?
Answer 3: Through repeated empirical studies it is found that odor of Helure B & Attractant Adjuvant pose no serious threat to predators because of its specificity to target insects only. When quite large number of traps are used in farming area for mass trapping it is possible that few predators may be caught by chance but definitely not by the odor. Even in such circumstances damage to predators is far less than those from synthetic pesticides. Similarly yellow color serves as visual attractant for many flying insects but does not pose serious threat to predators since predators are not attracted towards yellow color.
Question 4: Do we need repeated or perpetual application of pheromone traps in affected area?
Answer 4: Hopefully you may be sensitive to the fact that Tea Mosquito Bug is not migratory pest. It is not like that they live in nearby forest areas, come, feed and go back. Instead they are present in field itself. Numerous weeds are its alternative hosts. They cannot fly over long distance on their own. They can jump from bush to bush. They cannot withstand even the slightest wind and are carried over by them over long distance. They lay eggs in soft tissue and complete life cycle in limited area unless carried over by wind. Hence if we can intelligently attract and then trap them we may meet our objective i.e. significant decline in population level of Helopeltis. Though it is not like polio vaccine that once given your body is immune for whole life, but certainly it would help you to get expected yield for a season with minimum punch marks of Tea Mosquito Bug. Their shorter life cycle is also an advantage to reduce significantly the population level of next generations. Striking feature with insect trap is you are able to kill that is the first consideration in population decline.
It is empirically seen that Helopeltis shows significant response to the odor of HELURE. We can be assured of control for quite long time unless Helopeltis is introduced again. It is judicious to prevent the recurrence of Helopeltis by keeping the farmland free from debris and manually plucking the leaves punched by Helopeltis. To summarize you can be assured of control so long as Helopeltis are not introduced again in the field. After the application of pheromone trap we must take recommended cultural measures to thwart Helopeltis away.
Our pheromone trapping system takes care of many pests apart from Helopeltis. Hence we recommend not removing the traps once population of Helopeltis is declined in affected area. Your trap will continue to catch other flying insects pests thus preventing the major outbreak of pests later.
Question 5: Why synthetic chemicals are not being able to restrict the population level of Tea Mosquito Bugs?
Answer 5: Perpetual applications of synthetic pesticide do more harms than good. The more you are spraying pesticide the more powerful Helopeltis you are developing. Helopeltis has evolved enhanced resistance towards most of the synthetic pesticide used in the garden. I hope you too realize that these are not sustainable control measure as certain areas suffer Helopeltis attack year after year. Chemicals are designed to kill but they fail to do this so far as Helopeltis is concerned. If it is so why population of Helopeltis is continuously increasing.
Perpetual application of anything is not good as you are conditioning the plant to develop under constraint and/or artificial environment. Let the plant take own breath. Let them fight the invaders self. Let the plant restore their vitality. Health of your bushes is important for sustainability, productivity and hence profitability. Agro-chemicals have the potential to deviate secondary metabolic processes from the balanced production of defence structures and substances, generating an excess of free amino acids leaving plant cells excessively turgid and weak, promoting the proliferation of pests and diseases.
Question 6: What are the limitations with botanical products?
Answer 6: Neem tree has been found an alternative host of Helopeltis, so its extracts are not going to be useful as far as Helopeltis is concerned. Limitations for effective control over Helopeltis includes powerful detoxifying capabilities of salivary system of Helopeltis, its quick migration to safer area, ability to develop quick and enhanced resistance towards synthetic & vegetal products.
There are few botanical products that are effective over Helopeltis such as fruits of Pongamia, roots of Derris, etc. but their good effect is only seen where population of Helopeltis is low. Where Helopeltis is highly abundant results of botanicals are not long-lived. There is no doubt of relevance of botanical pesticide in Integrated Pest Management but we must work to prevent unprecedented pest’s outbreak. In circumstances of major outbreak of Helopeltis intelligent maneuver is needed.
Question 7: To what extent predators are helpful to combat Helopeltis?
Answer 7: Preying Mantis, Dragonflies, Assassin Bugs, Reduviid Bugs, Lacewings, etc. are identified predators of Helopeltis. Surely it would be of significant help if your garden has abundant population of these friends.
Question 8: Why we are providing only attractants viz. Helure & Attractant Adjuvant and Non-drying Sticky Coating but not the plastic sheets & wood structures?
Answer 8: Only to avoid unnecessary inflation. You are in better position to fabricate the trap structure on your own at considerably low cost due to unconstrained accessibility of wood/bamboo and labor. Our specialty is only for attractant & non-drying sticky coating that we are delivering to you at very competitive price. However we can provide you pre-coated yellow plastic sheet too if you desire so.
Question 9: How your investments in fabrication of trap structure are justified?
Answer 9: Investment required in insect-trap is as good as those associated with conventional methods. Trap once fabricated is useful for long period of time hopefully for more than 2-3 years. Sticky coating coated does not dry up and remains effective for whole season. Hence trap structures are more like an asset for you.
Question10: For how long HELURE will remain effective?
Answer 10: HELURE is formulated to emit odor for 10 to 20 days.
Question 11: Does HELURE contain natural extracts of insects?
Answer 11: No. HELURE does not contains body or gland extract of insects. Rather it contains synthetic mimics and host odors.
Question 12: Will it help if we increase/decrease the recommended rate of application of trap per hectare, i.e. 25/50 trap per hectare?
Answer 12: We recommend using 25 traps per hectare at spacing of 20 meter in plain area; and 50 traps per hectare at spacing of 10 meter in hilly areas. Theoretically upon detecting the odor Helopeltis will crawl around its source and finally will get caught onto the sticky plastic sheet. However wind turbulence, particularly in hilly areas, is quite high to take the pheromone plume away from its source. Hence the more we use pheromone trap the more is the chance for insect to detect the source fast. The recommended rate of application i.e. 25/50 trap per hectare is based on our empirical studies and you may increase or decrease it on basis of your intelligent judgement.
Question 13: Do we mean that application of insect trap is end of the story?
Answer 13: Certainly not. It needs intelligent maneuver and planned approach to bring down the population level of Helopeltis significantly. Managing Helopeltis is a dynamic approach and is aimed towards continuous removal of favorable circumstances that may let Helopeltis to gain foundation. The very fact that your garden is under attack of Helopeltis reveals that there are some favorable circumstances for Helopeltis and hence some imperfections in your garden. Imperfections may include failure to detect early signs of impending danger, plants not exhibiting enough resistance, susceptible clone, not enough predators, too many weeds and debris, improper management of Helopeltis in introductory stage or ignoring it all together even in advanced stage, Helopeltis equipped with enhanced resistance towards synthetic chemicals and many more. You need to remove the imperfections to prevent the repeat development of Helopeltis.
When Helopeltis has gained foothold you can take several measures to thwart Helopeltis away. The vigorous plucking of blighted potion of bushes will help to great extent reduce hatching of eggs. Helopeltis female is provided with serrated ovipositor to pierce holes in soft tissues of the plant for reception of her eggs. These observations have been verified empirically upon numerous blighted bushes; but, though eggs have readily been found (by the unaided eye) on the blighted portions of bushes, not a single one has yet been seen on any perfectly uninjured shoot. Hence vigorous and unremitting plucking of blighted portions of bushes might mitigate the evil.
Another measure is removal of stalks, weeds and maintaining cleanliness for when pest control measures are taken Helopeltis may not find safer areas to hide or migrate.
You can use our insect trap as monitoring also to be able to know well in advance that Helopeltis has arrived in your garden and also what management practices are needed. Insect trap is used all over the world for monitoring and mass trapping. They are also used as mating disruption measure. In presence of Helure insects won’t be able to locate their females which remain not impregnated and cannot reproduce themselves.
Pests can be regarded as environmental constraint i.e. they limit the ability of plants to produce shoots/leaves. Management of pest (and other constraints) requires sound knowledge and subsequently removal of fundamental cause. Reacting to symptoms (for example, spraying pesticide when you perceive pest) is more likely to be resulted into evolution of enhanced resistance of pest towards pesticide. When it is established that Helopeltis is causing serious challenge to your productivity your measure should be directed towards significant decline in its population level.
Question 14: What can we do with Helopeltis caught in insect trap?
Answer 14: You can develop one effective measure with the dead bodies of Helopeltis and other insects caught in insect trap. Just collect dead bodies of insects in sufficient quantity preferably in 1000s and put them to ferment for at least two weeks. During the fermentation any pathogen present in the dead bodies will likely to develop. It may be fungus, bacteria or nematode. Apply this indigenously developed pathogenic pesticide over tea bushes. Theoretically Helopeltis will get diseased and may suffer premature death if it comes in contact with these pathogens. Advantage with this system is you will be able to get blend of pathogen instead of isolated ones. This should work well. If you maintain a process to regularly develop and apply these pathogens over tea bushes, you may get good control.
Method of fermentation is not complicated. Just put thin heap of tealeaves in one 200 liter container. Place dead bodies of Helopeltis and other insects above it. Add full water. If you add few sugar or Gur (molasses) it will catalyze the fermentation process. Cover the container and leave it to ferment for two weeks. Stir occasionally at the interval of 4-5 days. After two weeks take out the liquid extracts and apply to plants without any dilution.
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