Assessment of trap plants to regulate numbers of the European tarnished plant bug, Lygus rugulipennis, on late-season strawberries

Various species of plants in the family Asteraceae were shown to be hosts f or the European tarnished plant bug Lygus rugulipennis and one, Matricaria recutita, was chosen as a potential trap plant for adults of this capsid sp ecies on their migration into fields of late-season strawberries from other host plants in July. There was a delay in the build-up of populations of n ymphs of L. rugulipennis on strawberries surrounded by a barrier strip of M . recutita compared to those without a barrier, but overall there were no c onsistent reductions in populations of the pest. Numbers of L. rugulipennis on the trap plant were small until late August. In a similar experiment us ing an alternative trap plant, Medicago sativa, no significant reductions i n the numbers of L. rugulipennis were found on strawberries with the trap b arrier, despite large numbers of the pest insect being found on this trap p lant. Although predatory arthropods such as spiders, Orius spp., and nabids, and hymenopterous parasitoids were found on the trap plants, there was no indic ation that they became more numerous on the strawberry plots inside these b arriers than on those without surrounding trap plants.