Attraction of Female and Male Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) to Bait Spray Applications for Reduction of Pest Populations

The objective of this study is to determine the efficacy of the bait spray applications in controlling of fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) on fruits and vegetables under field conditions and to make recommendations on how to move this package forward to all stakeholders. Because of concerns over damage to the environment and human health by insecticide cover sprays for fruit fly control, the bait spray technique has been developed. Bait spray applications as an “attract and kill” technology; attract both male and female fruit flies, making them more effective than the male attractant method for field pest management. Bait stations consist of an attractant, a killing agent and a device which contains both of these ingredients. Most bait sprays used in few parts of the world still rely on sugar and molasses, but in many countries the most commonly used are protein hydrolysate, acid hydrolysate and yeast autolysate. The bait speckles are discovered by the ever-foraging fruit flies as these move about the trees each day, and when the pests feed on the very small amount of organically-accepted active ingredient of an insecticide, these are killed. The categories of bait stations may be device carrying on a combination of insecticide and bait in a single formulation or device with a separated bait and insecticide. Fruit flies are lured to the bait and ingest a lethal dose of insecticide or fruit flies get in contact with a lethal dose of insecticide. Bait spray application to knock down localized fruit flies population and infestation is an important component of the pest eradication and increasing the effectiveness of the program that can be one of the most suitable alternatives. A further development and validation of bait sprays require an areawide approach in view of fly’s migration, fruit infestation and cost effectiveness. Further research is needed to optimize bait stations, the development of long-lasting attractants and killing agents, the safe use of killing agents, the development of stronger female attractants and improved bait station devices that are ideally biodegradable. As an output, bait spray alone is not a stand-alone control method for effective fruit fly suppression, but should be integrated with a series of other control methods. The stakeholders including researchers, fruits and vegetables producers and industry, and action programs are expected to contribute by facilitating research and development of fruit fly bait station technology.