Short range dispersal of western flower thrips in field-grown French beans in Kenya

Abstract

Western flower thrips causes considerable damage to a wide range of plants through feeding, laying eggs and spreading tospoviruses, and is an important pest of French bean in Kenya. This article provides information on field experiments conducted to determine the short-range dispersal pattern of adult western flower thrips on field-grown French bean, to predict its dispersal capacity and ability to infest new fields in an agroecosystem. Results show that understanding the dispersal pattern of adult F. occidentalis is important in developing sustainable management options against the pest, based on: isolating old fields from new ones; managing alternative hosts within French bean fields; applying insecticide; and devising crop rotation schemes. This is an output of the ‘Implementation of Integrated Thrips and Tospovirus Management Strategies in Smallholder Vegetable Cropping Systems of Eastern Africa’ project. It is partly funded by the UK Department for International Development, a core donor of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology