Usage
Trap crops, when used on an industrial scale, are generally planted at a key time in the pest's lifecycle, and then destroyed before that lifecycle finishes and the pest might have transferred from the trap plants to the main crop.
Examples of trap crops include:
- Alfalfa planted in strips among cotton, to draw away lygus bugs, while castor beans surround the field, or tobacco is planted in strips among it, to protect from the budworm Heliothis.
- Rose enthusiasts often plant Pelargonium geraniums among their rosebushes because japanese beetles are drawn to the geraniums, which are toxic to them.
- Chervil is used by gardeners to protect vegetable plants from slugs.
- Rye, sesbania, and sicklepod are used to protect soybeans from corn seeding maggots, stink bugs, and velvet green caterpillars, respectively.
- Mustard and Alfalfa planted near strawberries to attract lygus bugs, a method pioneered by Jim Cochran.
Read more about this topic: Trap Crop
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