IVANOVA, Ivanka
National co-ordinator for WCR, Central Laboratory for Plant Quarantine

The monitoring in the year 2000 has started at the beginning of July. The yellow sticky traps and the pheromone traps were located in the areas of North and Northwest Bulgaria: regions around the cities of Vidin, Vratsa, Montana, Pleven, Veliko, Tarnovo, Sofia and Sofia-city. The delivered yellow sticky traps were placed in the regions of Vidin and Vratsa as well as in other regions where the pest was caught in 1999.

The monitoring was carried out in two directions:
- Permanent observation posts for reporting of the population density.
- Reporting of the density and limits of dissemination of the pest.
In the other regions pheromone traps for detection of eventual penetration of WCR were set up.

The highest number of caught adults were in the town of Bregovo (close to the Serbian border): 372 adult WCR. The next highest number were in Granada (Vidin region):  214 adult WCR, and the village of Prevala – 290 WCR, Mitrovei (Montana region): 138 WCR. The highest number caught within a 24 hours period by on pheromone trap is in Bregovo:  9. The pest  continued spreading out within the country. In the year 2000 it has been also detected in the regions of the cities of Dimovo and Montana. Although the pest was caught  in regions sprawling along the Danube River in 1998, it’s been two years already that it has not been detected in these regions any longer.

Altogether 1527 WCR adults have been caught by pheromone traps while only 32 beetles were caught by  the yellow sticky traps. However, only 124 of the totally 1559  caught specimens are female.