These trapping sites have been established as part of the research initiative addressing questions of virus control in the Red River Valley. Funding for this project is provided by the 1998 Minnesota State Legislature. Little Falls, Baker, Climax, Karlstad, Williams, Hoople, Cando and Rolette. Four green tile traps and a suction trap are used at each site, except in Rolette which has only tile traps. These green tile traps mimic potato foliage and give an unbiased measure of aphid landing rates.
Suction traps are common monitoring devices for aphid flight activity in many parts of the world.
Picture 2 . Aphid monitoring with a suction trap. In general, percent transmission refers to the percentage of aphids that, having fed on virus infected plant, will transmit the virus to a healthy plant. However, it has been estimated that the landing rate of non-colonizing aphids exceeds 2,000 aphids per plant per day during the peak flight activity which compensates for their lower transmission efficiency. The host quality of small grains and weeds decline during maturation which triggers the production of winged individuals.