Evaluation of trap deployment patterns for behavioural control of apple maggot flies (Dipt., Tephritidae)

Abstract

We evaluated three different deployment patterns of sticky red sphere traps, baited with a five‐component blend of synthetic attractive fruit odour and placed on perimeter apple trees bordering adjacent habitat (front‐row trees), for control of apple maggot flies, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), in small plots of apple trees (about 30 × 30 m) in Massachusetts commercial apple orchards. Degree of fly penetration from front‐row to interior apple trees was assessed for R. pomonella of wild origin and for marked adults released in habitats adjacent to front‐row trees. Traps placed 10 and 5 m apart on front‐row trees or grouped on a single central front‐row tree performed as well as grower‐applied insecticide sprays in preventing penetration of plots by wild and released flies and in preventing fruit injury. This was equally true for plots whose front‐row trees consisted of cultivars comparatively susceptible to apple maggot as for plots whose front‐row trees were comprised of comparatively tolerant cultivars. It was also true for each seasonal period during which sampling for treatment performance occurred.

An egg‐laying device to estimate the induction of sterility in Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) sterile insect technique programmes

“…As previously found for adult captures of several species of pestiferous fruit flies (Boucher, Ashley, Durgy, Sciabarrasi, & Calderwood, 2003;Cohen & Yuval, 2000;Prokopy, Mittenthal, & Wright, 2003), egg-laying devices placed on perimeter trees in our study recovered greater numbers of eggs than those placed in the interior. Tephritid flies are highly mobile, most pest species require a period of sexual maturation spent in search of food and mating partners before females become responsive to fruit, and host fruit in commercial orchards becomes ripe and massively releases attractive odours in synchrony (Aluja & Rull, 2009).…”

Dispersal of Rhagoletis cerasi in Commercial Cherry Orchards: Efficacy of Soil Covering Nets for Cherry Fruit Fly Control

“…Therefore, soil netting is promising strategy for controlling R. cerasi in orchards. The combination of this strategy with perimeter trapping of immigrating flies using sticky traps and baits [23], might even improve the efficacy of soil netting of entire orchards. The economic analysis showed that installation of netting appears to be an economically viable strategy for intensively and semi-intensively managed organic systems.…”

Integration of Insecticidal, Phagostimulatory, and Visual Elements of an Attract and Kill System for Apple Maggot Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…In all experimental plots, traps were deployed on the exterior side of perimeter trees at a spacing of Ϸ8 m, following the published guidelines for trap placement and spacing (Drummond et al 1984;Prokopy et al 2003bProkopy et al , 2005. The mean deployment density across all experimental plots was 28 traps per ha.…”