Evaluation of insecticides and suitable trap containers for effective fruit fly catches

Fruit flies are quarantine pests and major impediments in horticultural production, domestic market, and export of fresh fruits and vegetables. Trapping with a lure is the best known method to monitor/ manage the fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis populations. The fruit fly attraction and its mortality depend on the lure, type of killing agent, and design of the trap container. To make the trapping technology more robust, a study was conducted to find out the suitable killing agent amongst ten insecticides and the best trap design among the available six trap designs. The results revealed that emamectin benzoate 1.9EC was superior as killing agent with the maximum trap catches (648.75 to 1304.75 fruit flies/ trap) up to 12 weeks, followed by abamectin 1.9EC and profenophos 50EC. Among the trap designs, the CISH trap container was found to be superior (306.25 to 940.00 fruit flies/ trap/ week).