Standardization of food bait, height and colour of the trap for attracting red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) by synthetic pheromone lure

Field trials were conducted to standardize the food bait, height and colour of the trap for enhancing the efficiency of synthetic aggregation pheromone lure of red palm weevil. The standard bucket trap provided with Ferrolure + (250 mg) was used for the study. Food baits like cut pieces of pineapple, cut pieces of sugarcane, hand crushed grapes, pieces of coconut petiole and peeled banana were tested for their efficacy in enhancing the weevil attraction by synthetic aggregation pheromone lure. Results of the study revealed that highest weevil capture could be obtained if pineapple and sugarcane was used as food bait with lure. Lowest number of weevils were captured in control traps where no food bait was used. Placement of trap at any height from gound to 1.52m was see table for trapping red palm weevils and above that height, number of weevils attracted were reduced. Colour of the trap was found to have no influence no the weevil attraction.