Influence of Electric Bulb Light Color and Type on the Attraction of Two Spotted Cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus De Geer)

Aside being a key nocturnal Agricultural pest, the two spotted cricket is an important source of protein for humans and livestock. While control is largely by synthetic pesticides, collection is majorly through hand picking and pouring of water into their burrows. In this study, we determined their phototactic response to LED and incandescent bulb light of different colours. An experiment was setup in Federal University, Wukari, using fabricated light traps with 3 Watts light emitting diode (LED) and, 25 Watts incandescent bulbs of different colours (red, yellow, green, blue and white). A control trap was also added. The setup was from 1800hr to 2400hr. G. bimaculatus collected were counted and data subjected to variance analysis and significantly different means were separated using Student Newman Keul’s test at 5% level of probability. The relationship between light intensity of each bulb type and insect density was determined by correlation and linear regression analysis. The results showed that while LED had higher mean intensity despite lower wattage, Blue colour had the highest mean intensity (736.80 Lux) among the LEDs and white (1094.20 Lux) among the incandescent bulbs. Statistical analysis indicated that differences among LED bulb colours were due to random variation; however was significant (p < 0.001) among incandescent bulbs. 93.7% of total G. bimaculatus collected was attracted by LED bulbs with blue LED bulb alone attracting 57.1% of the total insects. Light intensity was positively and significantly correlated with G. bimaculatus count for both LED (r = 0.92, R2 = 84.4%) and incandescent (r = 0.96, R2 = 92.5%). Higher attraction of G. bimaculatus to blue coloured LED bulbs could be as a result of preference to blue colour and/or high light intensity. Hence, blue LED bulbs can be used to manipulate the insect for the benefit of man.