Attractiveness of an Aggregation Pheromone Lure and Chicken Droppings to Adults and Larvae of Alphitobius diaperinus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Singh, N.; Johnson, D. T.

The Þrst Þeld test was conducted in a broiler production house with a moderate lesser mealworm infestation (1,000 Ð2,000 lesser mealworm adults per trap), at the Applied Broiler Research Unit in Savoy, AR. These numbers were based on a 1 d trap catch before starting the experiment. The building was 99 ϫ 14 m wide with the long axis orientated east to west and was managed to produce six or 8 wk-old broiler chickens, but it did not contain birds at the start of this study. Two automatic feeder lines ran the length of the house, 2 m out from the wall. The ßoor of the house was covered with used pine wood-shaving litter Ϸ8 cm deep. Plastic trays (56 ϫ 34 cm) containing chick feed were placed 2 d before chicks were introduced inside the house. They were used to supplement the automatic feeders so that newly hatched chicks had optimal feed access during the Þrst 10 d of a production cycle. The trays were located in three parallel lines. One row of trays was located under feed spouts on either side of the permanent feeder pans. The remaining two rows were on either side of the feed line beneath each automatic feeder line and the tray spacing was 1 m. The beetle traps were placed parallel to the feeder lines or feeder pans and were spaced Ϸ1 m apart. The experiment was a randomized complete block (RCB) design with four blocks: one and two on the north side of the house and three and four on the south side (Fig. 1) . Each block consisted of two treatments randomly assigned within each block: six traps with pheromone-treated septa; and six traps with untreated (control) septa. Trapping was conducted over three consecutive days from 20 to 23 August 2008. The house temperature was 28ЊC when the traps were initially placed and baited in the afternoon. The beetles were collected from the traps after 24 h and trap baits were replaced. By then, propane heaters raised the house temperature to 34ЊC (the rearing temperature of the young birds). After the second 24 h period, trapped beetles were again removed and baits replaced. At this time, 10,000 1-d-old chicks were released into the facility, and once again, beetles were collected from the traps after 24 h. Thus, the beetle response to the treated septa was monitored for 1 and 2 d before chick introduction and for 1 d afterward, and the time period of the study included a deÞned temperature change. Chicks were free to roam inside the poultry house. Chicken droppings had been observed all over on the ßoor in poultry house. However, more droppings were present near feeder lines.