The colored, adhesive panels can be found in many gardens. We show which pests you can fight with glue boards and how to use them.
Anyone who has ever been to a nursery will surely know the adhesive, colored boards that are hung between the plants. These panels are part of the so-called biotechnical plant protection, in which the stimuli of insects are used to fight or drive them away. Glue boards use the stimuli of insects that are attracted to special colors. They then stick to the glue boards. Pheromones are not usually necessary, although combining the glue tablets with these can make them even more effective.
What are glue boards?
Glue boards are colored paper or plastic boards that are colored the same color on both sides and coated with glue. The insects then stick to this glue so that they can no longer tamper with your plants.
What types of glue boards are there?
Glue tablets can be obtained in a variety of colors as many species of insects are attracted to different colors.
Yellow glue boards
The most well-known glue boards are certainly the yellow boards. Many insects are attracted to the yellow color, such as fungus gnats or whiteflies. You can also buy yellow boards in our Plantura shop. If you want to learn more specifically about the yellow sticky boards and which pests they are used against, visit our article on yellow sticky boards.
Blue Glue Boards
The blue boards are another type of glue board. These boards are used in particular to control or monitor thrips. You can find more information on the use and benefits of blue boards here.
White Glue Boards
White glue boards are specially made for California flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) and alsofor apple sawflies (Hoplocampa testudinea) and plum sawflies (Hoplocampa minuta or Hoplocampa flava). You can also monitor and catch the raspberry beetle (Byturus tomentosus) with white glue boards.
Red glue boards
The red glue tablets are used for the dissimilar wood drill (Xyleborus dispar). This pest is particularly found in orchards and vineyards and likes to attack apple trees (Malus), cherry trees (Prunus) and pear trees ( Pyrus). The beetle bores into the wood and lays its eggs there.
Orange glue boards
There are also orange glue boards that are used for the carrot fly, also known as the carrot fly (Chamaepsila rosae). But not only carrots (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) are attacked by these little culprits, also celery (Apium ) and parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) can suffer damage from the insects.
How do glue boards work?
The insects are attracted by their color and then stick to the glue boards. The different colors attract them because they react to the light reflections. For example, many insects are attracted to the color yellow because flowers that contain nutritious pollen and nectar are also yellow.
By the way, most glue boards can be reused by simply scraping off the trapped insects and re-coating the surface with the appropriate glue.
Application of glue boards for pest control?
In general, glue boards are only used for monitoring, i.e. for monitoring a pest infestation and not directly for combating it. The traps only attract adult insects, but the actual pests are usually the larvae that live in the soil. Also, a few animals always escape the trap, so reproduction still occurs. Nevertheless, the use of glue traps makes sense, since they can be used to detect an infestation early and thus take steps to combat it in good time. Furthermore, identification is easier with the stuck insects and you can monitor the success during the fight.
Tomatoes are particularly popular with aphids and whiteflies in early summer. For example, so that you can protect your plants after detecting the invasion, we recommend our article on controlling tomato pests.