752056Thrip pheromones for monitoringClosedVouchersInnovate UKThrips can be a major pest of both agricultural and horticultural crops. As such, growers monitor their crops for the appearance of thrips to determine when treatments are required to control them. Sticky traps are the most commonly used monitoring system, but these rely on thrips being attracted to the trap in preference to the crop plant. To increase the trapping potential, thrip sex pheromones are frequently used alongside the traps. However, these pheromones are mainly species specific, attract only males and rely on growers knowing which thrip species are likely to invade their crops. Oecos are investigating the potential for developing a new pheromone that can be used to attract males and females from a range of different thrip species. If successful, this generic pheromone could greatly improve the ability of growers to monitor and control thrips within a wide range of horticultural and agricultural crops.