Alexander E. Dearden

Western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) are major pests of horticultural crops worldwide, creating a need for sensitive monitoring tools to support integrated pest management. Semiochemical lures are widely used to enhance sticky trap capture, but their effectiveness depends on both attractant composition and dispenser design. In this study, the plant-derived volatiles p-anisaldehyde (PANI) and S(−)-verbenone were evaluated as individual and blended attractants, together with the development of practical dispenser systems, across field trials conducted between 2018 and 2021 in commercial strawberry production systems. Initial short-term trials in 2018 showed that both compounds increased trap capture relative to controls, with the PANI–verbenone blend providing the greatest enhancement across repeated 48 h assessments. Follow-on trials in 2019 supported these findings and introduced ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) tubing as a controlled-release dispenser, improving lure practicality and durability without loss of efficacy. Expanded multi-site trials in 2021, conducted across four farms over four weeks, showed that although early capture dynamics were similar among treatments, differences emerged over time. By day 28, blended attractants, particularly when delivered via polymer-based dispensers, consistently exceeded controls and performed comparably to, or sometimes better than, the commercial standard Lurem-TR. These findings show that combining plant-derived volatile blends with optimised controlled-release dispensers can improve monitoring sensitivity for F. occidentalis under commercial growing conditions.