Click beetles monitoring using pheromone traps in Serbia

Abstract

Wireworms are the larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) and can be of great economic importance in agriculture, especially for production of row crops such as sunflower. They feed on underground plant parts causing a reduced crop stand. Young plants, up to three pairs of leaves, are at higher risk. Larvae can live from two to five years in the soil depending on the species. Although only larvae are treated as pests, monitoring and control of adults, click beetles, can contribute to reduction of damages caused by larvae in the following years. The objective of this research was to monitor the activity of click beetles and determine the most abundant species in the region of Novi Sad (Serbia). For this purpose Csalomon pheromone traps, type YF, were used with five different pheromones for collecting: Agriotes ustulatus, A. sputator, combined pheromones for A. rufipalpis + A. sordidus and A. lineatus + A. obscurus (males) and A. ustulatus (males + females, pheromone + floral bait). For every pheromone two traps were deployed on sunflower fields at Rimski šančevi, in the vicinity of Novi Sad, during 2018 and 2019.