PEST MANAGEMENT Efficacy and Cost of Trap – Bait Combinations for Capturing Rhynchophorus palmarum L. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Ornamental Palm Polycultures JM URGUÍA -G ONZÁLEZ 1 ,IL ANDERO -T ORRES 1 , OR L EYVA -O VALLE 1 , ME G ALINDO -T OVAR 1 , RC LLARENA-HERNÁNDEZ 1 ,EPRESA-PARRA 2 , MA GARCÍA-MARTÍNEZ 1 1 Univ Veracruzana, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias Zona Orizaba-Córdoba, Amatlán de los Reyes, Veracruz, Mexico 2 Instituto de Ecología A.C., Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico Abstract Keywords Tropical horticulture, black palm weevil, inexpensive traps, agroecosystems Correspondence MA García-Martínez, Univ Veracruzana, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias Zona Orizaba-Córdoba, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez S/N, Centro Peñuela, 94945 Amatlán de los Reyes, Veracruz, Mexico; magarciamartinez@hotmail.com; miguelgarcia05@uv.mx Edited by Rafael M Pitta – Embrapa Received 19 January 2017 and accepted 11 July 2017 * Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil 2017 Ornamental palms are an economically important component of interna- tional trade yet have recently experienced yield losses in Mexico due to red ring and bud rot diseases, which are spread by Rhynchophorus palmarum L. Considering that massive capture is a common strategy to control this pest and the cost of commercial traps and baits could be inaccessible for small farmers, an inexpensive trap–bait combination is desired. In this study, 16 trap – bait combinations for capturing R. palmarum were assessed in ornamental palm polycultures over the course of 1 year. An expensive yellow bucket trap combined with aggre- gation pheromone + insecticide + banana was compared with inexpensive, handmade trap–bait combinations. A total of 4712 weevils were collected in all traps, of which 52.7% were male and 47.3% female. The efficacy of the handmade trap made from a colorless polyethylene bottle and baited with banana + pineapple + sugarcane + sugarcane molasses was similar to that of the yellow bucket trap baited with aggregation pheromone + in- secticide + banana. These two trap–bait combinations remained effective even when the R. palmarum population significantly decreased during the dry, warm season. The affordable handmade trap baited with food attrac- tants and without insecticides was highly efficient in capturing R. palmarum and therefore represents an effective tool for monitoring weevil populations. As ornamental crops have recently gained greater economic importance in the studied region, the use of a novel and cheap trap–bait combination could offer great benefits to producers and form part of the integrated management of R. palmarum. Introduction Palms (Arecales: Arecaceae) form a group of highly di- verse monocots in tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Tregear et al 2011). Their economic importance in international trade is due to their high ornamental value and potential use in food products (Baker et al 2009). The cultivation of ornamental palms has recently become an important source of income for producers entering the market (Ramírez-Rojas et al 2011), and the pests that threaten palm yield, quality, and marketing must be monitored in order to effectively sustain production (MacLeod & Hussein 2017). Currently, the palm agribusi- nesses of central Veracruz and other Neotropical regions of Mexico have reported yield losses mainly caused by Rhynchophorus palmarum L. (García-Hernández et al 2003, Osorio-Osorio et al 2003, Sumano et al 2012, Landero-Torres et al 2015a, b). Neotrop Entomol DOI 10.1007/s13744-017-0545-8