Pheromone and volatile lures for detecting the European house borer (Hylotrupes bajulus) and a manual sampling method

Summary We evaluated commercially available cross-vane traps (‘Intercept’), loaded with either synthetic pheromone or a combination of (+)-ά-pinene and (−)-verbenone in terms of their ability to detect European house borer (Hylotrupes bajulus, ‘EHB’), and compared their effectiveness with a manual search method. We employed pairs of traps at 45 sites, 28 of which had previously been identified as infested using manual search methods. In a four-month trapping period, a total of only six female adult EHB were detected from three sites, all of which had previously been identified during the manual survey. We suggest that the general sedentary behaviour of the beetle and its tendency to reinfest the same individual host tree limits the probability of it being intercepted by chemical lure traps in the field. Although labour-intensive, manual search methods remain the most reliable means of identifying local EHB infestations.