Chafer Trap

Garden Chafer Beetle Trap with Free Lure

The adult garden chafer beetle is around 10 mm long with chestnut brown wing casings and a shiny dark green head, thorax and leg. Adult male garden chafer beetles are drawn into the chafer beetle trap by means of a pheromone attractant lure. Once the garden Chafer beetles fly to the trap, they hit the plastic vanes on top, and are funnelled down inside, where they are unable to escape.

There are six chafer species in the UK. The garden chafer beetle trap catches the garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola, the species that causes most turf damage. The chafer beetle trap alerts greenkeepers and turf mangers that Garden Chafer beetles are present and that egg laying will follow. Once the adult female has laid its eggs, they will develop into chafer grubs, leading to both primary and secondary damage of turf surfaces such as; golf greens, tees, fairways and semi roughs, cricket outfields, bowling greens, sports pitches and ornamental lawns.

• Primary Damage: Chafer grubs feed on grass roots reducing the plants ability to source water and food leading to greater susceptibility to biotic (organism) and abiotic (environmental) stress. The impeded rooting depth also reduces the surface stability of turf areas.
• Secondary Damage: Birds and mammals are attracted to the beetle larvae as a food source where they can cause extremely severe damage to turf surfaces as they peck and dig for the grubs.

Garden chafer beetle traps help to reduce adult beetle egg laying and give a valuable warning that chafers are present. Monitoring the active life stage of insect pests forms an integral part of Integrated Pest Management and allows for better informed application timing of Entomopathogenic Nematode treatments.

Technical Information

• The garden chafer trap can be re-used each year when a new lure capsule is added.
• The trap should be placed in lawn areas and hung 50-100 cm above ground level.
• Area coverage: One trap will cover up to 2000 sq metres or half an acre.
• The trap is supplied with an attractant lure that will last up to six weeks, which covers the main flying season of the garden chafer beetle.
• Chafer traps should be positioned outdoors by May and remain in place throughout June.
• The lure used in the garden chafer beetle trap is attractive to the garden chafer beetle but not to other species of chafer. The garden chafer beetle is teh most likely chafer species to cause significant damage on turf surfaces.

Chafer Grub Life Cycle