Based on analysis of pheromone gland extracts, highly attractive new baits have been developed for three click beetle pests. That for Agriotes brevis is a mixture of geranyl butanoate and (E,E)-farnesyl butanoate, and that for A rufipalpis and A sordidus contains geranyl hexanoate alone. From known data from species populating Russia, optimized bait compositions for species in Central and Western Europe were developed as follows: geranyl octanoate + geranyl butanoate for A lineatus, geranyl isovalerate for A litigiosus, geranyl hexanoate + geranyl octanoate for A obscurus, geranyl butanoate alone for A sputator and (E,E)-farnesyl acetate alone for A ustulatus. Although slight differences were found in gland contents with A litigiosus var laichartingi and fenotypus typicus, nevertheless there were no differences in response to the optimum bait. There were no differences in pheromone composition or response to the optimized bait between the two morphological forms ('black' and 'red') of A ustulatus. As a result of these studies, highly effective pheromone baits are now available for monitoring and population reduction in all important pest click beetle species in Central and Western Europe.

Trap designs baited with the synthetic sex pheromone have been optimized for trapping of the western corn rootworm Diabrotica v. virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) (WCR), which has recently been introduced into Europe. The best trap design proved to be the sticky "cloak" trap (code name "PAL"), which catches only males, and is being used in many countries of Europe for detection and monitoring the spread of the new pest. Preliminarily the range of attraction (as defined by Wall and Perry, 1987) of the pheromone traps was estimated to be <10 m. The performance of yellow sticky plates (used by others for monitoring of the pest) was insignificant as compared to the activity of the pheromone baited traps, and yellow colour had no discernible effect on catches in pheromone traps. The known floral lure of WCR containing 4-methoxy-cinnamaldehyde and indole proved to be active also towards the population in Europe, attracting both females and males. Yellow colour slightly increased catches by the floral lure, hence a yellow sticky "cloak" trap has been developed (code name PALs). Pheromone baited PAL traps caught a total of about 4 times more beetles than the floral baited PALs, which latter however appeared to be preferentially active for females. When placed into the same trap, the pheromonal and floral lures did not interfere with each other's activity.

Trapping approaches developed for the emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), were adapted for trapping several European oak buprestid species. These approaches included the use of natural leaf surfaces as well as green and purple plastic in sticky trap designs. Plastic surfaces were incorporated into novel ‘branch‐trap’ designs that each presented two 5 × 9‐cm2 rectangular surfaces on a cardboard structure wrapped around the leaves of a branch. We used visual adult Agrilus decoys in an attempt to evoke male mating approaches toward the traps. Our first experiment compared the attractiveness of visual characteristics of the surfaces of branch‐traps. The second looked at the effect on trap captures of adding semiochemical lures, including manuka oil, (Z)‐3‐hexen‐1‐ol, and (Z)‐9‐tricosene. In total, 1 962 buprestid specimens including 14 species from the genus Agrilus were caught on 178 traps in a 22‐day time‐span. Overall, the green plastic‐covered branch‐traps significantly out‐performed the other trap designs. We further found that the presence of an EAB visual decoy placed on the trap surface often increased captures on these green traps, but this effect was stronger for certain Agrilus species than for others. The visual decoy was particularly important for the most serious pest detected, Agrilus biguttatus Fabricius, which was captured 13 times on traps with decoys, but only once without a decoy. There were some small but significant effects of odor treatment on the capture of buprestids of two common species, Agrilus angustulus Illiger and Agrilus sulcicollis Lacordaire. There were also 141 Elateridae specimens on these traps, which were not influenced by trap type or decoys. The results suggest that small branch‐traps of this nature can provide a useful new tool for monitoring of buprestids, which have the potential to be further optimized with respect to visual and olfactory cues.

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