Mixture of Synthetic Plant Volatiles Attracts More Stick Tea Thrips Dendrothrips minowai Priesner (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) and the Application as an Attractant in Tea Plantations.

The stick tea thrip ( Dendrothrips minowai ) is one of the most serious sucking pests of tea plants ( Camellia sinensis ) in China, North Korea, and Japan. Plant volatile lures are widely used for both monitoring and mass trapping. Previously, we demonstrated that sticky traps baited with p -anisaldehyde, eugenol, farnesene, or 3-methyl butanal captured significantly more D. minowai in tea plantations, with p -anisaldehyde notably capturing the most. In this study, we showed that D. minowai adults exhibited significantly higher attraction to mixtures of p -anisaldehyde, eugenol, and farnesene compared to an equivalent dose of p -anisaldehyde alone in H-tube olfactometer assays under laboratory conditions. Moreover, in field experiments conducted in 2022, rubber septa impregnated with a ternary blend of p -anisaldehyde, eugenol, and farnesene (at 3-4.5 mg and a ratio of 3:1:1) captured the highest number of adults on sticky traps, outperforming traps bailed with individual components or a solvent control over two weeks. Significantly, the mass trapping strategy employing these lures achieved control efficacies ranging from 62.8% to 70.7% when compared to traps without attractant, which achieved control efficacies of only 14.2% to 35.4% across three test sites in 2023. These results indicate that the combination of p -anisaldehyde, eugenol, and farnesene exhibits an additive or synergistic effect on D. minowai . In conclusion, our findings establish a theoretical framework and provide practical technological support for integrating attractant-based strategies into comprehensive thrips management strategies.