A Cheap electronic sensor automated trap for monitoring the flight activity period of moths

Abstract

Automated pheromone dispensers disrupt the mating behaviour of pest moths by releasing pheromone during their daily activity period, which is not the same for all target species. These periods usually occur in or close to night time and last just a few hours, so automated sampling devices are needed to characterize them. However, the commercially available automated models do not provide enough temporal resolution for characterizing the short diel periods of sexual activity of moths. Thus, we built and tested a relatively cheap and simple high-temporal-resolution image-sensor insect trap. It consisted of a Raspberry Pi computer with an infrared camera operated by open-source software and housed in a plastic box. The Raspberry Pi was powered by a solar panel and rechargeable battery that were mounted on a solid and weather-proof structure made of cheap materials. Pictures were downloaded by WiFi from the Raspberry's SD card to a computer. Six traps baited either with synthetic sex pheromone or with females of Grapholita molesta (Busk) were tested in the field. The traps were sturdy, reliable and easy to use, taking pictures at 10 min intervals, 24 h a day for over two months. These pictures confirmed previous results regarding the period of sexual activity of the oriental fruit moth, which will aid in determining the optimal time for operating automated pheromone dispensers.

A. Pérez-Aparicio was supported by a pre-doctoral JADE scholarship from the University of Lleida. C. Gemeno was supported by grant AGL2016-77373-C2-2-R (MEYC, Spain) and J. Llorens by a postdoctoral position at the University of Lleida. We are thankful to Vallfonda (Raimat SL) for allowing us to use the almond orchard.