Abstract

Coffee berry borer (CBB) is among the key insect pests of coffee worldwide. The use of bottle-baited traps has been in practice in several coffee-growing areas including Tanzania. However, there is limited information about the influence of height and spacing of commonly used bottle-baited traps in managing CBB in coffee-growing areas in the country. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of height where traps were placed (0.6, 1.2, and 1.6 m) on the reduction of infestation level of coffee berry borers at different developmental stages of coffee fruit (green and red fruit) under field conditions. The experiment followed a completely randomized block design with a factorial arrangement and four replications, three (lower, middle, and upper) levels of height and spacing were placed for 7 months. The number of captured CBB and damaged berries percentage was evaluated. The data were analyzed by R Software (2021) through an analysis of variance and means were separated by Turkey’s (0.05). A significant minimum berries damage (0.26%) as an implication of the lowest CBB infestation level was shown at the height of 0.6 m (for all stages of berries). On the other hand, at the red berries stage, the lowest damage (11.12%) was observed at the height of 1.6 m. Generally, this study deduced that the lower the height from which the traps are placed, the lower the infestation level of CBB hence reducing crop damage by the pest.

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