Relationship Between Flight Activity Outside Grain Bins and Probe Trap Catches Inside Grain Bins of Cryptolestes Ferrugineus

• Published in: Environmental entomology 2004-10, Vol.33 (5), p.1465-1470
• Main Authors: Nansen, Christian, Bonjour, Edmond L, Phillips, Thomas W, Vela-Coiffier, Elsa L, Gates, Michael W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Cryptolestes ferrugineus; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; grain storage facilities; hard red winter wheat; insect flight; insect traps; Invertebrates; Medically important nuisances and vectors, pests of stored products and materials: population survey and control; Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...); monitoring; Oklahoma; pest monitoring; Pests of stored products; probe traps; regression analysis; response surface regression; SAMPLING; sticky traps; storage insects; stored-product beetles; temporal variation; trap catch analysis; trapping
• ISSN: 0046-225X; 1938-2936
• DOI: 10.1603/0046-225X-33.5.1465

Insect sampling/monitoring inside grain bins is time consuming, cumbersome during the summer heat in the headspace of grain bins, may require investment in costly sampling devices for sampling of grain, and involves a certain risk to employees. Thus, it is important to explore unbaited sticky traps on the outside of grain elevators as decision support tools for improved management of stored grain. In this study, we analyzed seven trap catch data sets of unbaited sticky trap catches on the outside of grain bins and corresponding probe trap catches in the upper level of the grain mass at three farm bins in 1991, with capacities ranging from 68 to 141 metric tons, and at two commercial steel bins in 1993 and 1994, with capacities of 5,400 and 6,800 metric tons. We used response surface regression analysis to analyze standardized trap catches of the rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus, and showed that (1) from late June to late July, catches on unbaited sticky traps placed on the outside of grain bins preceded probe traps inside the bins by ≈3 d, which suggested immigration into bins; and (2) in late August, unbaited sticky trap catches on the outside of bins started to decrease, while probe trap catches inside the bins continued to increase until mid-September. We concluded that, from late June to mid-August, immigration of C. ferrugineus individuals into grain bins influences abundance in the upper grain layer, whereas later in the season, the two types of trap catches were only loosely associated. This study is consistent with results published elsewhere that immigration of C. ferrugineus into grain bins initiated shortly after wheat was loaded into the bins.