Does solar light trap reduce the cost of pesticides used in rice field?

Abstract

Pesticide application against insect pest infestation is environmentally unsafe and costly. An attempt was taken to evaluate the solar light trap as ecofriendly and cost-effective approach in Transplanted Aman rice (BRRI dhan32) field at Barhatta Upazila (Sub-district) in Netrokona district of Bangladesh. It was found that rice pest like Rice yellow stem borer, Rice leaf roller, Green leaf hopper, Brown plant hopper, Rice leaf miner, Rice gall midge, White leafhopper, Rice bug, Rice ear cutting caterpillar, White-backed planthopper, Rice caseworm, Grasshopper, Rice skipper and Rice beetle were the major insects that captured under the solar light traps. Some beneficial insects were also attracted by the trap these were Ladybird beetle, Water scavenger, Giant water bug, Ground beetle, Rove beetle, Damsel fly. All the harmful and the beneficial insects were belonging the order of Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and Odonata. Though the mean yield of rice was statistically insignificant in both fields, the light trap installed fields required the less frequency of pesticides than the control fields which ultimately rendered the low pesticides cost in a great extent. On an average 1,034 BDT was reduced in per hectare. SAARC J. Agric., 20(1): 171-183 (2022)

Mass Trapping Lepidopteran Pests with Light Traps, with Focus on Tortricid Forest Pests: What If?

“…The attraction/retention of adults in LTs often increase with trap size, i.e., the surface of the light source and volume of receptacles where trapped moths are collected [9,31,33,36,43,51,72,73]. Recent trends toward the miniaturization of LTs may thus impede the development of LT mt because small light sources attract relatively few adults and small receptacles rapidly saturate.…”

“…The development of novel LTs has blossomed in recent years (Table 1) with the advent of light emitting diodes, solar-powered energy sources, and intelligent designs [13,18,26,70,71,[73][74][75], leading to a renewed interest in LT mt . The high rate of innovation in designing LTs for insect control is not problematic per se; after all, improvements in trap design have been an intrinsic part of LT development since early inception [9].…”

“…Because many insect species across all major taxonomic orders are attracted to LTs [12][13][14]31,32,35,41,53,73,82,83], mass trapping programs are designed with light sources that predominantly capture key target pests and reduce the attraction of beneficial insects. The problem can be approximated with a redefined optimal trap design d j associated with the highest ratios of target pests to beneficial insects (n p /n b ):…”

“…Based on budget itemizations available in some mass trapping studies [18,24,26,39,41,73,99], a simple approach is proposed whereby the incremental yield of crop plants in plots treated with LTs (Y = Y LTmt -Y control , in $) is assumed to be dependent on a single factor:…”