| The western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis has the potential to cause three types of damage to its hosts: damage to the fruit, reduced photosynthetic capacity due to feeding on the leaves and transmission of plant pathogens. The majority of orchardists mow the orchard ground cover just prior to bloom to eliminate dandelion blossoms. The dandelions are thought to compete with apple blossoms for honey bee pollination. It is possible, however, that mowing forces the thrips from dandelions to apple blossoms in greater numbers or sooner than would otherwise be the case.;Mowing did not increase the numbers of thrips caught in the flower clusters, on sticky traps or increase the damage in the mowed plot compared to the control plot. When there was a significant difference between the number of thrips caught per trap per day between the upper and lower sticky traps, the upper traps always caught significantly more thrips than the lower traps. There were no positional effects caused by the location of the trap trees on the number of thrips caught in the sticky traps. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
