Pest trapping is a creative way of controlling pest without harming the environment. Irrespective of your system of cropping you adopt; you should prepare measures to combat pests to enhance your yield at the end of the cropping season. Insect traps are used to reduce the population of insect pests on the farm without causing any defect to the plant and the environment.
Insect pests are the most destructive form of pest in crop production; they are difficult to control because of their high fecundity, wide adaptivity, and size; they are mainly vector of different diseases such as cassava mosaic by Whitefly.
The larval stage of insects is the most destructive stage. An example is an armyworm; the caterpillar can devour maize plants under a few days under a severe attack. There are several ways of controlling insect pests at low cost.
Using Oil As Insect Trap
Making traps for the crop pests is one of the easiest and simplest methods of controlling pest and in return enhancing the quality and quantity of the produce. You can use oil to make a trap for insect pests. The oil used for this purpose could be of any origin, either vegetable oil or animal oil. All it does is to trap the insects and discourage it from accessing the plant.
How?
It is very simple and easy to achieve. You only need to fill the oil in a small container and place the container at a strategic point on your farm, usually, the furrow between the crop stands. An oil trap is very good at controlling insects of any kind, both the winged and the unwinged ones.
Most of these insects are active at night and some during the sunny part of the day; with the oil trap in the furrow of the plot; any flying insects, like moth and grasshopper, can easily get trapped in the oil as it tried to move towards the base of the crops. Similarly, crawling insects like the caterpillars of any insect can easily enter the oil as it moves around the farm.
You do not need a large volume of oil to achieve this, you only need a small bow of less than 5cm tall filled with oil. Also, you do not need to replace the oil every time; you only need to strain the trapped insects every morning to make the oil clean and clear again to accommodate more insect pests.
This method of pest control is relatively cheap and not injurious to man and the environment. It is an organic way of controlling pests in vegetable gardens; you can try it out and share your results via comments for assessment of this method.
Read also:
- Use The Principles Of Crop Rotation To Control Crop Pests And Diseases
- Identify And Control Pests Easily With These Pest Identification App
- Integrated Pest Management Programme: Examples And How It Works
Remember to Share for other farmers to benefit.