Pecan Nut Casebearer (PNC) Activity Monitoring

Objective:

Monitoring of pecan nut casebearer spring activity in pecan growing areas of the United States. This will enable us to notify growers in various locations when to look for PNC eggs/larvae and time their spraying.

Trapping Site:

Pecan orchards with mature bearing trees, preferably sites close to your location to enable daily trap checking.

Trapping Period:

Deploy one trap in one orchard site by early April. If you wish to have more than one site, just make sure sites at least 5 miles apart. Place traps within 1-3 rows from the edge of the orchard, preferably an edge next to a woodline. Hang traps in the lower canopy for easy checking. Check traps daily until biofix is established. Biofix is established when you capture at least one moth for two consecutive days at one site. Remove captured moth(s) after checking using a stick or a small branch. Replace pheromone after four weeks, if needed. Record data, put ‘0’ if no moths are captured. Data will be made available via: https://pecan.agpestmonitor.org/ipmtoolbox/forecast/

For consistency of data, we recommend Trece Pherocon VI Delta (white) trap and pheromone for this activity (Fig. 1).

Please store lures in the freezer before use.

Figure 1. Pecan nut casebearer trap with pheromone lure.
Figure 1. Pecan nut casebearer trap with pheromone lure.

To identify nut casebearer moths, look for the feature highlighted below (Fig. 2).

Figure 2. Male pecan nut casebearer. Data Sheet you can use to record data.