Plum Curculio Responses to 

 Unbaited Tedders Traps 



1 Pi 



Ronald Prokopy , Kathleen Leahy , Tracy Leskey , 

 and Catherine Bramlage 

 Department of Entomology, University of Massachusetts 

 ^ Polaris Orchard Management, Colrain, Massachusetts 



Over the past decade, several investigators in 

 eastern North America have evaluated numerous 

 kinds of traps for capturing plum curculio (PC) 

 adults (LeBlanc et al., 1984; Yonce et al., 1995). Only 

 one type has shown even marginal promise. It is 

 referred to as the "Tedders" trap and was developed 

 for monitoring pecan weevils in southeastern states 

 (Tedders and Wood, 1994). It is in the shape of a 

 tall thin pyramid, about 24 inches wide at the base 

 and about 36 inches tall, colored medium gray (Fig- 



ure 1). The trap base is staked to the ground to 

 maintain an upright position. Weevils are captured 

 when, after arrival on the trap surface, they crawl 

 upward to the tip of the pyramid and enter a small 

 inverted screen funnel placed over the tip, from 

 which they cannot escape. As presently used for 

 monitoring pecan weevils, the trap is not baited. It 

 is placed beneath the canopy of pecan trees, where 

 newly emerging adults beneath the tree canopy fly 

 or crawl to the trap, apparently because they per- 



-"-"*'^ ■ -^ ' ^ 



Figure 1. Tedders plum curculio traps in the field. 



Fruit Notes, Winter, 1996 



