Determination of adult population density of Agonoscena pistaciae Burc.&Laut. (Hemiptera:Psyllidae) on pistachio trees in Şanlıurfa province by different methods

With this study, which was carried out in two pistachio orchards (Karaköprü-1 and Karaköprü-2) in Karaköprü district of Şanlıurfa province in 2019-2020, it was aimed to determine the adult population changes of Pistachio psyllid, Agonoscena pistaciae, which is the main pest in the pistachio orchards, by beating and yellow sticky trap methods. Counts were made in weekly periods with 10 trees from each orchard which were chosen for both sampling methods. In the graphs plotted by data obtained, similar population curves were observed in both orchards for two different sampling methods. However, curves obtained from yellow sticky traps indicate a higher population than the curves obtained from beating method. This difference was found to be significant in the statistical analysis. The first adults were seen in 04/28/2019 in the first year and in 05/03/2020 in the second year in both orchards and sampling methods. In the first year, the highest population level was found in 09/01/2019 in orchards Karaköprü-1 and 2 as 100.3 adult/SYT, 119.3 adult/SYT, and 84 adult/beating, 92.5 adult/beating, respectively. In the second year, similar population densities were determined in the samplings achieved by yellow sticky trap and beating in the same orchards and population levels of >150 adult/SYT and >100 adult/beating were observed. With this study, it was concluded that yellow sticky traps are able to determine changes in the populaion as accurately as beating method, a classical method, in the studies which monitor the adult population movements with A. pistaciae. The fact that the numerical difference between the samples obtained by the two sampling methods is statistically significant shows that the yellow sticky traps are promising tools in terms of being used within the scope of biotechnical methods within the integrated control methods. It is considered that the effectiveness of yellow sticky trap to catch A. pistaciae adults can be increased with new studies by using yellow sticky traps alone or in combination with some other methods. With these studies, trapping A. pistaciae adults in mass and thus keeping their populations below the Economic Damage Threshold or at least reducing the number of pesticide applications will ensure that these studies have achieved their purpose.