The presence of pests in fields is one of the main constraints facing farmers. Controlling these pests is essential for any grower wishing to avoid partial or even total crop losses. Here are a few tips on how to get rid of these pests for the good of your crops.
Trapping insects that threaten your crop
There are many insects that can attack the fruit, vegetables or cereals in your garden or field. Crop losses caused by these pests are estimated at 59, 92 and 62 megatons per year for wheat, rice and corn. These statistics are likely to increase over the coming decades if nothing is done. For this reason, numerous insect and rodent trapping tools have been developed to enable growers to combat these pests effectively.
Techniques vary according to the nature of the threat. You can use pheromone traps, for example, if your aim is to protect your fruit trees from flies. They are generally delivered without pheromone. You’ll need a sticky bottom or a pheromone capsule to place at the bottom of the trap before hanging it in the tree. You can also use other types of trap, such as :
- Funnel traps,
- The pine processionary trap, installed in June to capture pine processionary caterpillar moths,
- The pine processionary collar trap, installed on the tree trunk in February to capture caterpillars,
- Suzukii drosophila trap.
To optimize the effectiveness of these traps, they can be fitted with pheromone diffusers.
Get rid of rodents with traps
Rodents are among the pests that most worry farmers. Among these rodents, the vole is the most formidable enemy. A colony of voles is capable of destroying a large part of a cereal field, especially at the start of vegetation. You can use trapping systems to get rid of them. The Topcat vole trap is ideal for this purpose.
Simply locate the mouse burrows in your field and set one or two traps. Baiting is not necessary with this type of trap if your targets are voles or moles. However, if you’re targeting field voles, a small piece of apple or carrot placed on the top trigger of the trap will help capture them more easily.
Implement good preventive measures
Catching field pests with traps is one thing, but knowing how to prevent them is even better. To do this, you can turn to biological control by introducing or increasing the pests’ natural predators. You can also opt for varietal resistance. This technique involves growing resistant varieties capable of delivering good productivity despite the presence of insect pests.
Installing physical barriers is another effective way of combating crop pests. Mouse barriers and nets against flies and other insects can be used. Reasonable control by trapping or biological means is therefore the best way to get rid of the pests that storm your crops.
