Pheromone traps

How it works

A synthetic copy of the female mating scent lures males into a trap. It tells you exactly when the pest flight begins, which is the moment other treatments become worth applying.

Recipe

Hang the species-specific lure in its trap at chest height, one per two or three trees for monitoring.

How to apply

Hang before the expected flight (olive fly from June; codling moth from May). Check weekly, note first catch, replace lures every 6-8 weeks.

Targets — pests

Codling moth, Olive fly, Tomato leafminer, Peach moth

Targets — diseases

Not recorded — the field is blank rather than guessed.

Supplies: Pheromone lures, Trap housing

Days to harvest after spraying: 0

Best months: May, June, July, August

Cautions

One lure catches one species only - buy the right one. Monitoring traps alone will not control a population; mass-trapping needs many more traps.

The thing people get wrong

The real value is the date. Everything else you might do about codling moth or olive fly has a narrow window, and the first male in the trap is the alarm clock that opens it.