Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXVIII, Issue 1
Written by Ana-Maria VÎRTEIU, Ramona ȘTEF, Codruța CHIȘ, Ioana GROZEA
Thrips are a common pest in most horticultural and ornamental crops. They are particularly common in greenhouses in western Romania. In the present study, we investigated thrips preference for different coloured traps as well as specific structure and abundance in Petunia hybrida varieties in greenhouses. Thrips attraction to colour was assessed using three commercially available coloured sticky traps: yellow, orange and blue. Taxonomically, the diversity of thrips is reflected in the relatively large number of species, identified in Petunia, 6 species: Frankliniella intonsa, Frankliniella occidentalis, Frankliniella schultzei, Scirtothrips dorsalis, Thrips palmi and Thrips tabaci. Of these species, 2 are the most common and abundant: Frankliniella occidentalis (n= 172) and Thrips tabaci (n= 163). In the Petunia varieties, significant differences were observed depending on the colour of the trap, these were found between yellow-blue (p = 0.000) and yellow-orange (p = 0.000) and it is observed that there are no significant differences between blue-orange (p = 0.434). Most of the thrips species were caught with the yellow sticky traps (F=39.398, p=0.000<0.05).
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