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Sticky Solutions: the Science Behind Traps · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Dr russell sharp and today we're going to be talking about
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  traps all things traps it's a trap what's
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  that from star wars i think so anyway so traps
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  the base the basic trap that you'll come across for
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  pest disease pest and disease no just pests is
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  a yellow sticky trap yellow sticky traps are great
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  you can get small rectangular ones you
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  get for controlling aphids and also any
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  sorts of flying pest and the reason they're
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  yellow is because that is what
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  aphids are actually attracted to so you.
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  Might think green would be the best color but it's actually yellow
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  because yellow is indicative of a a
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  sick plant so we think of plants that have gone chlorotic
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  and yellow and aphids find it
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  easier to attack plants that are sick we mentioned
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  in the last podcast that plants aphids
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  transfer viruses because viruses make the
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  plants sicker and easier to attack and so a
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  yellow sticky trap is what is the color that aphids.
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  Have been drawn to and other pests are drawn to
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  and so the sticky trap and then the stickiness is
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  a chemical called polybutene and
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  that is the stickiest chemical that exists the stickiest
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  of the stickiest chemicals that has ever been synthesized and we've
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  had tubs of this arrive at our factory
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  when we've been making traps in the past and the
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  delivery drivers have just thrown the parcel around and
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  then it's all leaked out and you think that's the worst thing
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  they could they're not going to make that mistake ever again because they
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  then got the stickiest of stickiest chemicals all over
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  their van and their lorry so polybutene is
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  an extremely sticky chemical and takes hours and
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  hours to wash it off your hand and it's
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  it's used on those traps it can even be used on
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  mouse traps polybutene and it's used on blue traps red traps you can get yellow
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  sticky traps that go next to the soil surface oh got the police coming past
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  my window and you've got these the sticky traps that go next to the soil surface
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  are great for controlling fungus gnats.
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  They don't have to be yellow though for fungus gnats black is the
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  best color for fungus nut traps it's just that
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  yellow the reason you'll find yellow sticky traps used for
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  fungus nut is because yellow is the standard trap
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  that is used routinely it's the cheapest one to
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  make because of the economies of scale and so
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  no one's bothered to produce a black sticky trap we
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  did work here at utreema looking at a spray on
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  sticky trap using that polybutene in a form
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  where it could be sprayed on it wasn't sticky until the the
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  carrier had dissolved off and you could spray this on your onto
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  your your pots you could spray it onto the legs
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  of the stilts that strawberries are grown onto and stop vine weevil traveling
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  up to the strawberry plants however that was a product that never really took
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  off so we didn't commercialize it at all but it sits there in the back of my
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  mind and if another product another problem occurs so i say yellow sticky traps it's polybutene,
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  standard yellow plastic, and you'll see commercial greenhouses use plastic film,
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  and then there's just rolls and rolls of this film that then goes throughout
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  the whole, some miles and miles of glasshouse, and that's used to control pests
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  and disease and does a really good job.
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  But the main, this is the main use, this is the control use of the yellow sticky
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  traps and also the monitoring.
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  So you can get yellow sticky traps with squares on them,
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  and then these squares you
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  can find a number of aphids or thrips or maybe even beneficials and then you
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  can monitor the population in your growing environment and then you can replace
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  them regularly so you know if the population has gone above the level in which
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  you need to use either biological or chemical or another form of cultural control.
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  So as I say yellow sticky traps are the most common blues are used
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  to attract thrips now thrips will attract to yellows
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  as well however blues are better because they attract
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  they get less beneficials attracted
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  to them and so you don't want your beneficial wasps
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  your parasitic wasps your your lace wings being attached to your sticky traps
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  and that's one of the disadvantages of sticky traps it's also the reason they're
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  not used outdoors because you just get so many non-target organisms attracted
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  to them so if you do see them in an outdoor field it's normally as a.
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  To measure the populations rather than actual control. I don't know of anyone
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  who's using traps as a control method.
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  Other colours of traps you might see are red traps. These are common in orchards
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  and I think these are used against rosophyll or fruit fly and they might have
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  a bait in there, a sugary bait.
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  Ammonium phosphate is sometimes used as a bait in traps in the European Union.
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  That can be used and you even now have synthetic pheromone
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  traps where there's a pheromone that attracts the
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  insect it thinks it's going to mate and then it's stuck to
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  a trap so coddling moth and a number
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  of other orchard-based pest diseases pheromones
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  are now routine deroguer in orchard
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  crops i don't know of any pheromone traps that
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  are used in hydroponics traps can.
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  Also be used for subterranean pests and
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  you can bury i think
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  it's you put wheat inside toilet rolls
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  and bury them to get wireworms and
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  monitor wireworm population and control wireworms in in
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  any sort of like potato crops that have been following grassland where
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  you get a lot of wireworm pests and even old.
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  Doors are put down as traps for slugs for
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  monitoring slug populations they're called slug hotels
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  and in the uk there's a big
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  project that is using called slimers
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  and all farmers and scientists are putting old doors in
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  fields to monitor slug populations so that's
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  an interesting trap and then if obviously you've got traps for
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  deer for deer can you have true deer traps no what do
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  i mean squirrels squirrel traps mice traps
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  rat traps any rodent-based pests
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  you're going to have traps and i said traps are
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  not used for disease control or monitoring
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  but that's not actually true they are used for two types
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  of disease and that's the diseases in the
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  umicete class of pathogens so
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  these are pathogens that are normally thought to be well were
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  traditionally thought to be fungal but they are not fungi they
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  are oomycetes and that's because they are more closely related to
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  algae and they don't have chitin cell walls and they have these things called
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  zoospores so rather than spores that just float around in the air zoospores
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  swim in water and so the two that you are particularly going to be concerned.
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  With in hydroponics are pythium and Phytophora.
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  These are bud rots, root rots, and they're very difficult to control with any type of fungicide.
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  And they travel in water, so really wet conditions, and they,
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  particularly a problem in anywhere you've got a water tank that's being fed
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  from rainwater or from any other source of natural water systems and anywhere
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  where there's decaying matter going into the water system so what in certain
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  nurseries they have bait traps where there's a bit of.
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  Food vegetable in the tank and
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  that is a signal to the zoo spores
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  to swim towards it to infect it so they then look at it they take the they regularly
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  take out the bit of decaying food and put it under a microscope and look and
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  stain it and look for zoo spores on it and that might be an elaborate trap or
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  a very simple trap but look into that if you're suffering from root rot.
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  Rather than just you know reaching for the
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  peroxide every time if you're suffering from pythium or phytophthora
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  or the fungicide every time have a look at the the.
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  Use of traps to find and see if you've got
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  zoospores swimming around in your irrigation system you might
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  not realize it but that is a that's a big source of contamination so
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  you might be getting bud rots and and not
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  realize it's actually coming from the biofilms and
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  the and the the the source of your water
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  especially if you're thinking oh rainwater is the best possible option.
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  For your plants you know thinking tap water is full of chlorine well maybe
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  that's that's a source of your phytophora root bud rot
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  certainly something to think about and that's enough
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  for today on hydroponics daily until tomorrow thank
• 8:49
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• 8:55
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