Trap crops: A tool for managing insect pests damage

Trap crops are those crops which are planted along with the main cash crop to protect it from a specific pest or several pests by attracting them for feeding, breeding and survival. These crops are generally planted along the main crop as intercropping, as border or in strips. Insect management practices like insecticide spraying are confined to these crops.

List of some important trap crops

Trap crop	Main crop	Method of planting	Pest controlled
Alfalfa	Cotton	Strip intercrop	Lygus bug
Basil and marigold	Garlic	Border crop	Thrips
Castor plant	Cotton	Border crop	Heliotis sp.
Chervil	Vegetables, ornamentals	Among plants	Slugs
Chinese cabbage, mustard, and radish	Cabbage	Planted in every 15 rows of cabbage	Cabbage webworm, flea hopper, mustard aphid
Beans and other legumes	Corn	Row intercrop	Leafhopper, leaf beetles, stalk borer, fall armyworm
Chick pea	Cotton	Block trap crop at  20 plants/ sq m	Heliotis sp.
Collards	Cabbage	Border crop	Diamondback moth
Corn	Cotton	Row intercrop, planted in  every 20 rows of cotton or every 10-15 m	Heliotis sp.
Cowpea	Cotton	Row intercrop in every 5 rows of cotton	Heliotis sp.
Desmodium	Corn, cowpea, millet, sorghum	Row intercrop	Stemborer, striga
Dill and lovage	Tomato	Row intercrop	Tomato hornworm
Green beans	Soybean	Row intercrop	Mexican bean beetle
Horse radish	Potato	Intercrop	Colorado potato beetle
Hot cherry pepper	Bell pepper	Border crop	Pepper maggot
Indian mustard	Cabbage	Strip intercrop in  between cabbage plots	Cabbage head caterpillar
Marigold  (French and African marigold)	Solanaceous, crucifers, legumes, cucurbits	Row/strip intercrop	Nematodes
Medick (Medicago littoralis)	Carrot	Strip intercrop in between carrot plots	Carrot root fly
Napier grass	Corn	Intercrop, border crop	Stemborer
Nasturtium	Cabbage	Row intercrop	Aphids flea beetle, cucumber beetle, squash vine borer
Okra	Cotton	Border crop	Flower cotton weevil
Onion and garlic	Carrot	Border crops or barrier  crops in between plots	Carrot root fly Thrips
Radish	Cabbage family	Row intercrop	Flea beetle, root maggot
Rye	Soybean	Row intercrop	Corn seedling maggot
Sesbania	Soybean	Row intercrop at a distance of 15 m apart	Stink bug
Sickle pod	Soybean	Strip intercrop	Velvet bean caterpillar, green stink bug
Soybean	Corn	Row intercrop	Heliotis sp.
Sudan grass	Corn	Intercrop, border crop	Stemborer
Sunflower	Cotton	Row intercrop in every  5 rows of cotton	Heliotis sp.
Tansy	Potato	Intercrop	Colorado potato beetle
Tobacco	Cotton	Row intercrop, planted in every 20 rows of cotton	Heliotis sp.
Tomato	Cabbage	Intercrop (tomato is planted  2 weeks ahead at the plots' borders)	Diamondback moth
Vetiver grass	Corn	Perimeter crop	Corn stalk borer