pheromones for rhino beetle

[sometime]

A little help please

I want to make some traps for the Rhino beetle etc, I have looked online for the bait to put in the trap but its a stupid price from overseas.

What bait do you guys use?

Thanks

[djayz]

I have no idea where, or even why, you want to set these traps, but I remember as a child digging holes in the garden and placing something with slippery sides (e.g. an old washed out jam jar or bucket) in it, back filling so that the rim of the jar/bucket was level with the surrounding soil. Next day, lots of bugs and once even a pygmy shrew.

I don't recall ever using bait. 

[drtreelove]

I can't answer your question but i do have some information and experience with CRB control methods and materials and I would be happy to share if you are interested.  I don't think bait traps are widely used here, and there are some limitations.

 

Bait traps for CRB and fruit flies etc are usually marginally effective and only get a percentage of the population, still allowing for significant infestation. A combination of methods is usually most effective. Sanitation (removing dead and dying palms and cleaning up downed wood waste debris) and netting compost and manure piles to prevent the adult beetles from flying out to the palm crowns from the ground breeding sites, being major management essentials, along with chemical or biological control. Maybe that is what you are doing. 

 

"On Guam, mass trapping using CRB aggregation pheromone, ethyl 4-methyloctanoate, was ineffective for population control. Recent improvements have increased trap catch rates by more than an order of magnitude. These improvements include equipping pheromone traps with solar powered ultraviolet light emitting diodes and mounting the traps on steel drums containing artificial breeding sites."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267521104_Improved_traps_for_the_coconut_rhinoceros_beetle_Oryctes_rhinoceros

 

There is a biological control method that is used here by Dept of Ag programs, a fungus that infects and kills the CRB larvae in the breeding sites. 

 

 

 

 

[sometime]

11 hours ago, djayz said:

I have no idea where, or even why, you want to set these traps, but I remember as a child digging holes in the garden and placing something with slippery sides (e.g. an old washed out jam jar or bucket) in it, back filling so that the rim of the jar/bucket was level with the surrounding soil. Next day, lots of bugs and once even a pygmy shrew.

I don't recall ever using bait. 

Because they are killing my foxtail palms

[drtreelove]

3 hours ago, sometime said:

Because they are killing my foxtail palms

For ornamental palms you may consider a barrier insecticide application for prevention, and/or a systemic insecticide soil drench for root uptake. 

 

Pyrethroids like a cypermethrin and bifenthrin combination are inexpensive and low toxicity for mammals, and provide a month or more of residual effectiveness as a barrier if you drench the growing point and upper tree trunk with a spray solution. It binds to the surface organic matter and provides a barrier for new beetle activity, but does not penetrate tissues and go systemic for beetles that are already in the tree. 

 

Botanical (organic program) biopesticides like the neem seed extract 'Azadirachtin' are a repellent barrier and are widely available and non-toxic but more expensive and require frequent repeated spray applications, every week during high risk periods of activity.  

 

Feasibility of spraying is dependent on size of palms and spray equipment to reach the tops. 

 

Starkle-G (dinotefuran) is a widely available, potent, neonicotinoid, low toxicity systemic insecticide that is fast acting for uptake. With a soil drench application or injection there is minimal environmental contamination or danger for exposure to pollinators.  Acephate is somewhat available, and is even faster and more effective and cheaper. It is low toxicity for mammals but a stinky older generation organophosphate systemic insecticide. Either of these systemics can be stem-injected for minimal material and environmental exposure. Acephate or secondly, StarkleG would be my choice for immediate control of an active infestation for non-food ornamental palms. Not appropriate for coconut or oil palms. With this method you can save a palm that is under beetle attack, where bait traps, sanitation and biological control are longer term preventive measures. 

[sometime]

5 hours ago, drtreelove said:

For ornamental palms you may consider a barrier insecticide application for prevention, and/or a systemic insecticide soil drench for root uptake. 

 

Pyrethroids like a cypermethrin and bifenthrin combination are inexpensive and low toxicity for mammals, and provide a month or more of residual effectiveness as a barrier if you drench the growing point and upper tree trunk with a spray solution. It binds to the surface organic matter and provides a barrier for new beetle activity, but does not penetrate tissues and go systemic for beetles that are already in the tree. 

 

Botanical (organic program) biopesticides like the neem seed extract 'Azadirachtin' are a repellent barrier and are widely available and non-toxic but more expensive and require frequent repeated spray applications, every week during high risk periods of activity.  

 

Feasibility of spraying is dependent on size of palms and spray equipment to reach the tops. 

 

Starkle-G (dinotefuran) is a widely available, potent, neonicotinoid, low toxicity systemic insecticide that is fast acting for uptake. With a soil drench application or injection there is minimal environmental contamination or danger for exposure to pollinators.  Acephate is somewhat available, and is even faster and more effective and cheaper. It is low toxicity for mammals but a stinky older generation organophosphate systemic insecticide. Either of these systemics can be stem-injected for minimal material and environmental exposure. Acephate or secondly, StarkleG would be my choice for immediate control of an active infestation for non-food ornamental palms. Not appropriate for coconut or oil palms. With this method you can save a palm that is under beetle attack, where bait traps, sanitation and biological control are longer term preventive measures. 

Thanks drtreelove, I started to use Starkle g a few weeks ago.

[Tagged]

Is this harmfull to Yang Na and fruit trees? We have alot of grass, and 160 trees of different kind. 

 

And if harmfull, what to do? 

[Beggar]

I could send you the family of my girlfriend. They like to eat Rhino Beatles. But for sure you might find more Thais cooking and eating them. 

[drtreelove]

11 hours ago, Tagged said:

Is this harmfull to Yang Na and fruit trees? We have alot of grass, and 160 trees of different kind. 

 

And if harmfull, what to do? 

 

Not likely to be harmful to the dicot trees as far as I know. Rhinoceros beetle is mainly a pest of coconut and oil palms. But you should be inspecting/monitoring the trees weekly for pest and disease issues. 

 

The grubs feeding on the organic matter on the soil surface that you show, may or may not be rhinoceros beetle. Have you seen adult beetles? Have you seen any damage on the trees.  Are there palms nearby that could be their host plant? 

 

If determined to be a problem, management/control has several possibilities, sanitation being one practical method, means managing wood waste and compost, netting compost piles to prevent adult beetles from flying out to the trees, disposing of downed trees and woody plant parts.  There is a biological agent, a fungus that kills larvae, which you can spray on your soil and compost piles to keep the numbers down. 

[sunnyboy2018]

Brilliant topic! I wonder how the Thai bashers will use this one. Regarding the pest in question.  Does it not have a natural predator that you can utilize?

[Tagged]

19 minutes ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

Brilliant topic! I wonder how the Thai bashers will use this one. Regarding the pest in question.  Does it not have a natural predator that you can utilize?

Snakes and birds eats them ???? Another reason for not killing snakes. 

 

 

[Tagged]

37 minutes ago, drtreelove said:

Not likely to be harmful to the dicot trees as far as I know. Rhinoceros beetle is mainly a pest of coconut and oil palms. But you should be inspecting/monitoring the trees weekly for pest and disease issues. 

 

The grubs feeding on the organic matter on the soil surface that you show, may or may not be rhinoceros beetle. Have you seen adult beetles? Have you seen any damage on the trees.  Are there palms nearby that could be their host plant? 

 

If determined to be a problem, management/control has several possibilities, sanitation being one practical method, means managing wood waste and compost, netting compost piles to prevent adult beetles from flying out to the trees, disposing of downed trees and woody plant parts.  There is a biological agent, a fungus that kills larvae, which you can spray on your soil and compost piles to keep the numbers down. 

 

No palms around this area, and mostly potatos, chilli and rice land there. 

 

My gf have asked around, and the locals says it should not be a problem, and if not a problem, we will not use any chems, and if to much of them, we can start eating them, and make Beetle fights games. 

 

We see now alot of changes on the land, with insects, birds, snakes, and I love to see how everything going, so as far we can control everything the natural way without harming our trees, flowers, we continue without any chems. 

[drtreelove]

9 hours ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

Brilliant topic! I wonder how the Thai bashers will use this one. Regarding the pest in question.  Does it not have a natural predator that you can utilize?

Fortunately you won't find much Thai bashing on this farming forum, only occasional frustrations expressed. 

 

The brilliant aspect of this topic in my opinion, is that the big beetle larvae are not necessarily a pest, if they are not harming plants of economic or aesthetic value. That is the intelligence in the question and the follow up of the OP.  Learn what you are dealing with, monitor plants for pest activity. Use preventive and early intervention.

 

Why kill the grubs if they are just doing their thing in processing raw organic matter and breaking it down for better availability in soil building and plant health. There are billions more beneficial organisms at work in the soil, most we can't see without a microscope. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides do great damage to these beneficials and cause a never ending cycle of chemical dependency. So it's not only snakes and birds you shouldn't kill, but beneficial fungi, bacteria, nematodes, protozoa in the soil, and mini-wasps that parasitize the grubs by ovipositing.