New Food Baits for Trapping German Cockroaches Blattella germanica (L.)

摘要

New trap baits were designed and tested for attracting German cockroaches (GCRs), Blattella germanica. In large-arena laboratory experiments, traps baited with rye bread captured 8-fold more GCR males than unbaited control traps. Neither beer nor water enhanced the attractiveness of bread. As Porapak Q headspace volatile extracts of rye bread attracted GCRs, all odorants in extracts were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A blend of synthetic rye bread odorants and other known bread odorants was highly attractive to GCRs but the essential components in that blend are yet to be determined. In and field trapping experiments, both a 3-component composition (3CC) [dry malt extract (DME), water, Brewer’s yeast] and DME alone were as effective for attracting GCRs as a commercial cockroach bait. Future studies will investigate lethal biocontrol agents that can be added to the 3CC, or the DME, and will explore the efficacy of such baits for GCR control.