Changes in Shape, Texture and Airflow Improve Efficiency of Monitoring Traps for Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The commercially-available traps for the red flour beetle generally have low trapping efficiency, limiting their effectiveness for accurate monitoring of the population density of this cosmopolitan pest in different storage and food processing facilities. Five new traps were developed, and their efficiency for trapping the red flour beetle was tested. These new traps have the option of operating with or without a fan. The new traps generally had higher trapping than the present commercial trap. Further exploration for use in different stored-product facilities would enhance the use of these traps while providing a better estimate of the population present. ABSTRACT: The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is an important pest of stored products. We compared an existing standard commercial trap with five experimental trap designs differing from the status quo in shape, surface texture, and in forced air capability provided by fans. We tested the five new traps and a commercial trap with T. castaneum adults with the presence/absence of air flow and the availability of either the pheromone only or both the pheromone and kairomone. Without using the fans and baited with pheromone only, these new trap designs capture beetles three to five times as efficiently as the status quo trap. Use of both pheromone and kairomone doubled the capture efficiency of the status quo trap but did not significantly affect the capture efficiency of the new trap designs, all of which captured significantly more effectively than the status quo trap. Turning on fans for forced ventilation significantly improved trap efficiency of the more effective of the newer traps compared to monitoring with both pheromone and kairomone but no fan. This study provides new insights into factors affecting trap efficiency for monitoring of T. castaneum in grain storage facilities, and suggests ways in which existing traps might be improved.