In recent decades there have been an increasing number of outbreaks of the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) in Europe. A large amount of sanitary felling has taken place, with significant economic and ecological consequences. In order to anticipate such large-scale outbreaks, an effective monitoring system should be set up. One important aspect of monitoring is the decision on which pheromone to use. We suggest a framework for selecting an effective pheromone with few side effects and implemented it on five different pheromones under different disturbance conditions: Pheroprax, IT Ecolure, Ipstyp, Ipsowit and Typosan. We set 50 traps in two areas with sites that were disturbed and undisturbed by wind storms. We collected bark beetles from traps every one to two weeks from the end of March until the end of September in 2019. We investigated the number of bark beetles caught, bark beetle dynamics, amount of bycatch and predators, the taxonomic groups of the bycatch and the overall costs of the monitoring system. We found that Pheroprax, IT Ecolure and Ipsowit caught the most bark beetles and best showed the population dynamics. There was a low amount of bycatch (less than 6% of the total catch) and predators (a few individuals), but some groups seem to prefer certain pheromones. The cost of the pheromones increased with their effectiveness. However, pheromone costs are low relative to the personnel costs involved in setting traps and collecting bark beetles. The framework and the results will help professionals to decide which pheromones to purchase for their bark beetle monitoring system.

We set 50 traps in two areas with sites that were disturbed and undisturbed by wind storms. We collected bark beetles from traps every one to two weeks from the end of March until the end of September in 2019. We investigated the number of bark beetles caught, amount of bycatch and predators, for the bycatch the taxonomic groups on order level and for the Coleoptera on family level.