Yellow sticky traps are a key component of IPM programs for several greenhouse and vegetable pests. Yellow sticky traps have been used intensively for early detection, identification of hotspots as well as for estimating relative abundance and dispersals of adult insects occurring either in greenhouses or fields. In addition, the traps have the potential of suppressing adult populations alone or in combination with other control strategies such as biological and chemical controls. In spite of the fact that the traps have been widely used with several advantages for growers such as low cost and low training demands, the understanding of insect flight and dispersal behaviors based on sticky traps have been limited. Since the trap catches are highly associated with flight behaviors of insects, the catch data should be carefully interpreted and analyzed in conjunction with the flight behaviors of target insects to develop ecologically sound IPM programs. Thus, a control decision-making based on mean trap catches without knowledge in the flight behaviors may produce biased or wrong conclusion. In this study, flight and migration behaviors of insect pests such as thrips, whiteflies and leafminers are studied based on sticky trap catch data obtained from greenhouses and fields. Also I summarize the knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to develop yellow sticky traps into a more effective decision-making tool for pest management.

• Kijong Cho(Department of Environmental science & Ecological engineering, Korea University)