This week, my partner, Aziza, and I visited the Pink Houses Community Farm in Brooklyn, with Samuel, our Supervisor. At Pink Houses, we met Kelly, the Pink Houses Farm Manger, and together, we decided where we would set up the insect traps (pitfall and pan traps) later in the month.
Nevertheless, we also visited John Bowne High School in Queens, to set up the insect traps on their school farm. We set up two sets of traps, that is, two pitfall traps and two pairs of pan traps made of two pairs of blue and yellow bowls; we positioned one set of traps near the flower planting installed this spring and further away from the crops of interest (the Brassicas), and positioned the other set of traps close to the crop of interest (Brassicas) and further away from the flower planting. We also scouted the crops near the traps (Brassicas and Cucumbers) where we did foliar monitoring to assess the damage by pests and identified the pests present. Moreover, we mapped out the beneficial insect habitat (flower planting) to create a map that will help us to evaluate the beneficial habitat.
After 48 hours, we returned to John Bowne High School to collect the traps. It was a really exciting experience to identify and sort all the different insects that were trapped.
