Increased effectiveness and applicability of the sterile insect technique through male‐only releases for control of Mediterranean fruit flies during fruiting seasons

Abstract

One of the main obstacles for a wider use of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) against the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) is the damage commercial fruit suffers due to sterile female stings. To overcome this obstacle, the Joint FAOlIAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture has played a leading role in sponsoring and carrying out research to develop medfly genetic sexing strains that allow male-only SIT releases.Recently, as a result of this continued FAOjlAE.4 effort, genetic sexing strains based on a temperature sensitive lethal (/sl) mutation have been developed at the IAEA Laboratories at Seibersdorf. Unlike previous pupal color sexing strains, these 'second generation' sexing strains allow female killing at an early (embryonal) stage. In addition, they are essentially stable under mass rearing conditions. This represents an important breakthrough because both of these attributes were considered indispensable for genetic sexing strains with any potential to replace conventional strains with both sexes in large scale sterile medfly production facilities. Besides the considerable savings in the costs of release and field monitoring, genetic sexing strains in field tests have shown severalfold increases in the effectiveness of the SIT as compared with the standard strains involving males and females. When releasing both males and females, sterile males are apparently not used effectively, because they use their limited sperm mostly to mate with sterile females and because they do not disperse widely in the presence of these females. When males only are released, however, they disperse much further in search of wild females and compete more intensely with wild males for wild females.As a result of the availability of usable male-only strains, and the demonstration of their increased effectiveness, the applicability of the SIT against medfly has increased in two different ways. Highly developed commercial fruit growing regions, that previously had excluded application of SIT because of the fruit damage due to sterile female stings, are now reconsidering such free area/exclusion programs. More-importantly, sterile male releases can now also be used for routine control purposes, rather than only for eradication programs, partially or fully replacing chemical bait-sprays during the fruiting seasons.

Importância da ingestão de proteína na fase adulta para o sucesso de acasalamento dos machos de Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Nessa técnica, machos estéreis são liberados no campo e devem competir com machos selvagens pela aceitação da fêmea para acasalamento (Knipling et al 1989, Hendrichs et al 1995. Conhecer bem quais as características que podem melhorar o desempenho de machos estéreis em campo, tais como a ingestão ou não de proteína na fase adulta, é de fundamental importância para o sucesso da técnica.…”

Modeling the distribution of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824) (Diptera, Tephritidae) in Turkey and its range expansion in Black Sea Region

“…annual production of citrus, peach, pomegranate, and fig is about 3,976, 650, 450 and 300 kt, respectively) (TUIK, 2016). Ceratitis capitata is one of the most important insect pests of fruit in Turkey (Hendrichs et al, 1995;Elekçioğlu, 2009). Due to its quarantine status, it can also cause issues in fruit export (Elekçioğlu, 2009).…”

Mathematical Modeling of Sterile Insect Technology for Control of Anopheles Mosquito

“…Among regions where other releases were done, we can mention Southern USA, Mexico, Central America [41], and Lybia [30]. Since then, the SIT has been used successfully to almost eradicate various insect populations ranging from pest species (eg Mediterranean fruit fly), Ceratitis capitata Wiedeman [22], codling moth Cydia pomonella (L.) [9,35], tsetse fly Glossina austeni [35], Culex quinquefasciatus to the vector of Bancroftian filariasis [36]. The book [18] provides a comprehensive overview on the SIT and its applications.…”