Assessment of trap plants to regulate numbers of the European tarnished plant bug, Lygus rugulipennis, on late-season strawberries

Various species of plants in the family Asteraceae were shown to be hosts for Athe European tarnished plant bug Lygus rugulipennis and one, Matricaria recutita, was chosen as a potential trap Aplant for adults of this capsid species on their migration into fields of late-season strawberries from other Ahost plants in July. There was a delay in the build-up of populations of nymphs of L. rugulipennis on Astrawberries surrounded by a barrier strip ofM. recutita compared to those without a barrier, but overall there were no Aconsistent reductions in populations of the pest. Numbers of L. rugulipennis on the trap plant were small until late AAugust. In a similar experiment using an alternative trap plant, Medicago sativa, no significant reductions in the Anumbers ofL. rugulipennis were found on strawberries with the trap barrier, despite large numbers of the pest insect Abeing found on this trap plant. lthough predatory arthropods such as spiders, Orius spp., and nabids, and Ahymenopterous parasitoids were found on the trap plants, there was no indication that they became more Anumerous on the strawberry plots inside these barriers than on those without surrounding trap plants.