Improving thrips monitoring methods in lettuce and pepper

Pest population monitoring is a critical component of integrated pest management. Early detection of pests and continuous monitoring during the crop growing season provide valuable information for making management decisions. This is particularly crucial for managing thrips, which are economically important pests that not only cause direct damage but also act as vectors of plant viruses. Thrips population levels indicate the risk of crop exposure to thrips infestation and are often directly associated with the epidemiology of thrips-transmitted viruses. However, different sampling methods may result in different population density for thrips monitoring. In this study, we examined plant sampling, pan trap, and sticky trap methods for monitoring thrips populations in lettuce and pepper, important vegetable crops that affected by thrips. In lettuce fields, samples were collected to monitor Frankliniella occidentalis, the vector of Impatiens necrotic spot virus. In pepper fields, samples were collected to monitor Thrips parvispinus, an invasive thrips and emerging pest in Florida. Overall, the results showed that while sticky traps are effective for capturing thrips, they are not an optimal method due to the difficulty in identifying the collected specimens. Plant samples and pan traps proved advantageous for capturing thrips and preserving intact specimens suitable for species identification. The number of thrips collected by each sampling method and the implications of these methods for thrips monitoring will be discussed.