Assessing Trogodermagranarium's Infestation of Some Legumes and Cereal Crops and the Monitoring of Stored Pests Using Synthetic Lures in Obudu Cross River State, Nigeria

Two experiments were carried out in two different markets in Obudu, to first monitor the presence of insect pests in stored produce houses in the two markets using synthetic lures. The second experiment was toassessess infestation of some legumes, cereals and oil seed crops by Trogodermagranarium. For the stored produce pests, four warehouses were selected, two each in Katube andUdama Market. In each of the warehouses, three traps were laid, one with BFL 225 Pheromone dispenser, the second with Bullet Lure Dispenser while the third trap was left blank (i.e control). The experiment was replicated three times. Data were taken weekly for eight months, the insects caught by the traps were identified, counted and recorded. In the second experiment, 3 day old Trogodermagranarium were introduced into containers for mating and oviposition, insect emergence and weight loss were the indices for assessing the infestation by Trogodermagranarium. The stored produce were the treatment and the set up replicated six times and laid out in a Completely Randomize Design (CRD). Data were collected weekly on weight loss for 16 weeks. During the first five weeks, data on the number of emerged adults were collected. The result showed that traps baited with the multi-attractant pheromone BFL 225 lured significantly (p<0.05) caught higher number of insects (177.99) than the bullet lure (145.17) and the control trap (141.91). The Trogodermagranarium that emerged from castor oil seed was significantly (p<0.05) higher (20.23) in 5 weeks than the number emerged from other produce. Generally, the adult emergence of T. granarium was significantly higher in castor seeds, and in cereals compared to the other produce. Also at 16 weeks of storage, castorseeds recorded the highest weight loss (14.52) compared to the other produce, with the lowest weight loss in Soybean (1.98). The trial indicated that there are possibilities of using synthetic insect pheromones in monitoring insects’ population in food storage facilities. The result of assessment of infestation of T. granarium showed that although the insect preferred castor seeds, it can also infest other grains such as cereals and soybean in market stores.