An Acoustic Trap to Survey and Capture Two Neoscapteriscus Species

There is an extensive history of mole cricket integrated pest management (IPM) research in Florida, USA (Kerr et al. 2014; Mhina et al. 2016), much of which has incorporated acoustic trapping as a monitoring tool. The acoustic trap design described in this report provides a method for surveying 2 Neoscapteriscus mole cricket species relatively autonomously at low cost, which can facilitate future efforts to study the biology, ecology, and distribution of invasive mole crickets (e.g., Walker 1988). In a broader context, however, there remains considerable need to reduce the costs and simplify the technology of these and other traps based on inexpensive microcontroller platforms, not only for Neoscapteriscus species, but also for other pests that mate based on either acoustic or vibrational communication (Mankin 2012).