Trap Bands

broad bands (15-20 cm wide) of plaited straw, heavy paper, matting, shavings, and other materials that are placed in rings on the trunks and large branches of trees to capture and exterminate plant pests that usually winter or pupate under the old bark. They are used principally in orchards to combat the caterpillars of codling moths, pearmoths, plum moths, weevils, and other pests.

Trap bands are tied to the trunk of a tree below the crown with twine and bast, usually at a height of 1–1.5 m. Most are treated with insecticides; when nontoxic bands are used, the insects are exterminated by mechanical means. Before the bands are applied, dead bark and lichens are removed from the tree trunks. With the arrival of winter the trap bands are taken down and burned. Sometimes sticky bands treated with special glue are attached to the tree trunks. The glue is applied on flat strips of paper or on the trunks of the trees in a band 4–5 cm wide. Trap bands are effective primarily on small surfaces where chemical methods of combatting insect pests are impossible or unprofitable.