Food-baited Aggregation Pheromone Traps for Management of the Red Palm Weevil Rhyncophorus ferrugineus Olivier (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus fernigineus Olivier (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is an invasive devastating insect pest infesting date palms in the world. Its introduction to Egypt was noticed in 1992. The pest spread very quickly. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the use of aggregation food baited pheromone traps for management this pest. Obtained results proved that the topography feature played a considerable role in distribution of apical and basal infestation. These results suggested that more apical infestations by RPW took place when it flayed from higher areas into lower areas. The study revealed significant differences among the numbers of captured RPW adults collected from baited traps arranged and installed in cardinal directions. Highest mean numbers of captured weevils occurred in spring and early summer (April-June) in traps installed in North-West, while the highest mean numbers of captured weevils in traps set in South-East occurred in spring and autumn. The study suggested the best trap density of 3 traps for 5 faddans (1.26 traps/ ha) for mass trapping, which attracted highest number of weevils.