Positioning Unbaited Pyramid Traps to Capture Plum Curculios

In the 1996 Winter issue of Fruit Notes, we reported results of our 1995 research on plum curculio responses to unbaited “Tedders” traps. These traps are pyramidal in shape, dark in color, and are placed on the ground. They capture curculios that arrive on the trap surface and subsequently crawl upward to the tip, where they enter an inverted screen funnel (a cotton boll weevil trap top) placed over the tip, from which they cannot escape. All reported tests to date using Tedders traps (hereafter referred to as pyramid traps) for capturing plum curculios have involved deploying unbaited traps between canopies of apple trees within rows. In 1996, we evaluated unbaited pyramid traps at four different positions on the ground in a small commercial apple orchard (Prokopy orchard) in Conway, MA. In addition, we compared curculio captures by pyramid traps with captures by unbaited cotton boll weevil trap tops placed in tree canopies. For each position or type of trap, we compared daily trap captures with daily incidence of orchard fruit scarring by plum curculios.