Suitability of a UV Lamp for Trapping the Greenhouse Whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood (Hom: Aleyrodidae)

Due to the increase in the demand for chemical free products and increasing pest resistance to chemicals, there is an urgent need to develop chemical free crop protection methods. Research was carried out to investigate the suitability of using a special UV lamp to trap the greenhouse whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood (Hom.: Aleyrodidae) in greenhouses located in the northern part of Germany. Four small tunnels were arranged in a cross-like pattern, with a black compartment in the centre. In the first experiment, the UV lamp was placed on one end above the tunnels such that the tunnels received different light intensities. For the second set of experiments, the UV lamp was positioned directly above the tunnels thereby generating equal UV intensities in all the tunnels. During each experiment, adult greenhouse whiteflies were released from the black compartment and allowed to fly into a tunnel of their choice, where they were recaptured using yellow sticky traps. Results show that significantly more whiteflies were recorded on yellow sticky traps inside the tunnels with more UV intensity. When the tunnels were illuminated with equal UV intensities, there was no significant difference in the number of whiteflies recorded in the tunnels. These results suggest that it is possible to develop a special lamp for trapping whiteflies in greenhouses.