Fruit flies are a serious problem in apple orchards in Pakistan. Chemical control with Deptrix and other pesticides is not enough to control this pest.
Are there any integrated measure with more emphasis on biological and pheromone based control?
Using mating disruption with sex pheromones for the codling moth has proved very useful for codling moth control in apple orchards
a seminar about Drosophila was held last year. Please have a look at the different presentations at http://cri.fmach.eu/publications/report/Drosophila-talks
Do you know which fruitfly is involved ?
ants are particularly efficient in controlling fruit fly attacks on Mango trees. they could also be helpful in apple orchards. see Van Mele et al, 2007, Pesticides News (75) 9-11
Please tell us the genus of the fruit fly that is causing your problems in apple (Bactrocera, Rhagoletis, Ceratitis or something else). By the way, how are you controlling codling moth in Pakistan? this could be related with your fruit fly problems.
Reading your question and the answers, I feel that we need first a clear identification of the pest insect. Some researcher are referring to fruit flies from the family Tephretididae like cherry fruit flies (Genus Rhagoletis) or mango fruit flies. Other refer to flies from the genus Drosophilidae like Drosophila melanogaster, the well known model insect. In your case, I guess that you have a problem with the apple maggot Rhagoletis pomonella (Tephretididae; see link). Is this correct?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_maggot
Hi David, this sounds too easy. It is a hard work to identify new active compounds which are suitable for use in plant protection. E. g. they must be very attractive for the pest species (more than the plant itself) , but not for other maybe beneficial insects. Further, you have to develop a trapping system which is suitable for this specific pest. Finally, the synthesis of the compounds, as well as the construction costs for the trap should be as low as possible to make this kind of control system competitively. Together with a colleage we have written a general protocol how to do develop species specific trapping systems recently. In case you are interested, please look for this book chapter: WEINTRAUB, P. G. & GROSS, J. 2013. Capturing insect vectors of phytoplasmas. In Dickinson M.J. & Hodgetts, J. (eds.) Phytoplasma: Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology 938: 61-72. Springer Science+Business Media, New York.
Dear Dr Asad, All the above techniques are very resonable for fruit fly anyhow in apples orchards we are facing codling moth problems not fruitfly if any where existed then apply Bait application techniques where 3 % Protein hydrolysate with minute quantity of some safe insecticide i.e. Tracer, Emmamectin benzoate is mixed and spot application is carried out, in this way both the sexes will attract to the bait and will easly control this techniques is also practised in guava orchards for Bactrocera zonata and this spp is commonly found in pakistan, morover the biological control agents like Dichismiorphos longichaudata and tribliographa deci should be encourged, these agents are usually found in Kohat districts.
Are you talking about Ceratitis capitata? Diptera family is quite sensitive to Dimethoate (organophosphorous insecticide). Try it.
Dear Asad, our lab specilizes in fruit fly control. So, please let me know the identification of the fruit fly. I can help you in this matter.
Bactrocera dorsalis and B. correcta are attracted to Methyl Eugenol traps. I would suggest you to conduct a small test. Just take a paper and spread some methyl eugenol and see if the flies are getting attracted. If they do then they are dorsalis and correcta. If possible please send me a photograph of the same :) thanks :)
Dear Asad, We use fruit fly traps and they are 90% effective against fruit flies. If proper information about the insects is given. I would help you with the design of the trap developed in our department. Please let me know. regards.
we are interested in developing a trap that attracts fruit flies but uses Beauveria bassiana or Bt pv israelensis as the killing agent rather than an insecticide. Suggestions for trap design to dliver a powder ot oil formulation of Bb would be appreciated. Especially in terms of the question of how to avoid collateral damage to neutral or beneficial insects.
Dear Laing,
We have tried and have developed fruit fly traps where we used biocontrol agent such as spores of Beauveria bassiana. The spore load (CFU) on the body of fruit flies were determined and found it to be too low (mean spore load = 19 CFU; n = 1000). Apart from this the insects could escape from the trap and cause cross contamination to other insects in the allocate area as made evident by other insects such as red ants and bees being affected by Beauveria bassiana. We have had success by using an ultra-low amount of organophosphates (10 ul) per trap. We use 20 traps per hecter so that would be using only 200 ul per hecter and i feel is too low. We have never tried BT yet. I think using this ultra low amounts of insecticides would not cause collateral damage to neutral or beneficial insects. Please give me your precious comments to improve the traping system.
with kind regards,
Interesting, and really useful research. Thanks for sharing it .I am puzzled that 19 spores of Bb did not kill one fruit fly. It appears that we have strains and formulations of Bb that are much more pathogenic because 1-2 spores in a hydrophobic formulation kills house fly and whitefly (formulation - a mineral oil or an oil emulsion are essential because Bb spores are very hydrophobic) . As for collateral damage on bees and red ants - I am puzzled - how would the fruit flies transport the Bb to a situation where the fruit flies could pass on the Bb conidia to these insects ? What bait did you use, and did it attract bees and red ants into the trap ? And what trap design did you use. The ultra low levels of OP insecticide (malathion ?) is remarkable. I am amazed that so little OP was able to kill multiple fruit flies.I had not imagined that OPs were SO toxic. Thisis really useful. Did you look at the longevity of the LD90 over time of the OP in this trap ? Many OPs are partly volatile which improves their insecticidal activity, but it also means that they do not persist. We are getting efficacy of Bb for more than 6 weeks so far, which makes it a viable option in practic in the field.
Thats really interesting Dr. Laing. We would like to use your strains if you are willing to provide us with the same.
We use a simple bottle trap where a block of wood that is drenched in 1 ml ME (Methyl eugenol) and OP (10 uL) is placed inside the bottle. These bottles are hung on branches of trees. This attracts fruit flies in plenty. We change or recommond to change to new trap onse in a month (4 weeks). Although OPs are volatile, they have a lasting effect of up to 4 weeks when drenched into wooden blocks. These wooden blocks assist the slow release of both the parapheromone and OPs. This is a cost effective method that cost less then 1 cent ($ 0.1). Other methods of using septas are too costly for the Indian farmer. Our traps can be made by the farmer himself and would not cost him much.
We are yet to determine the LD90/50 of the OPs (DDVP). We have not done it. Thanks for the suggestion. I will discuss it with my group.
Yes we were as puzzled as you were when we observed a mean of 19 spores not killing fruit flies. So, we conducted a small bioassay under lab conditions and to our astonishment !!! we could only achive 20% mortality. When we observed closely, after the spores was dusted on fruit flies they began to wipe their body with their legs and also started applying some secreation from their sucking mouth parts. This seceration had a peculiar aromatic smell. Therefore, we did a whole body and mouth part head space collection of volatiles and performend a GC/MS. It was interesting to see two major peaks that corrosponded to ME and the other to an oxidized alcoholic product of ME. We conducted an anti-fungal bioassay and found that these two metabolites were highly anti-fungal espacilly the oxidized alcoholic product. We could thus conclude that this was the main reason for the low mortality and infection rates.
We are also astonished to see the cross-contamination occure !!! The study is going on. Will surly inform you about the results and conclusion onse done.
We used a mixture of mango pulp and known CFU of spores as the formulation and this was applied as a thin layer on the inside walls of the traps. The wooden block with only ME was present as usual as the bait.
We are keen in using a biocontrol agent but due to the drawbacks, we had to use OPs . Please enlighten us with your precious comments.
regards.
Allow Drosophila to feed on apple infected with aqueous crude neem seed extract. This will be put at various location in the orchard. Definitely, reproductive performance will be progressively lowered with ultimate control of the species. Effective dose can even kill them outrightly.
I would like to add my experience on the control the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae, the most important pest of olive. Hopefully, the material used for effective control of the olive fruit fly could work for your pest as well. During the last few years in Greece the commercial product Success (code GF-120) is used as a bait spray. The product is ready to apply and it is composed of spinosad (0.24 g/liter) and an attractant (99.76 g/liter). The pesticide is an environmentally friendly material deriving from the fermentation of the Actinomycete Saccharopolyspora spinosa. The bait is used at a dose of 7.2 liters/100 liters of water from the ground and 100 cc of the solution is sprayed on each tree. The method is widely applied in Greece and the product has been registered.
Asad,
Many fly species attract to Yellow sticky trap and pheromones traps. I suggest to try with these traps.
Dear Asad Ali,
Based on my experience, application of trap with methyl eugenol, as sex pheromone, is the best way to control the population of male insect. But sometimes, when the number of male insect in the trap is too high, it will attract the female insect too, so the trap needs to be replaced with the new one. It depends on the population of fruit fly in the area.
In response to John Tsitsipis, what about resistance development to spinosad ? It is a problem with spinosad with other pest situations where the selection pressure is high. And because this bait x spinosad approach will be very effective, it will create a high selection pressure. Perhaps the spinosad needs to be supported by a second insecticidal entity, either chemical or biological (e.g., Bti.)
The point Dr Laing is raising is important. Resistance should always be of concern especially if there are indications that such a problem might appear. And there is a recent paper that resistance, although at low grade, has been recorded in olive fly populations from California and Greece but not from Cyprus. Resistance of the insect to organophosphates as well as pyrethroids has been found in Greece. Use of several available tools is advisable and continuous monitoring for resistance development should be done. As far as the specific question initially posed, concerning control of the apple fruit flies, other techniques such as bait sprays with other chemical pesticides (e.g. pyrethroids), mass trapping insects by the combined effect of pheromones, food attractants and killing agents in a trap can be used. For the olive fruit fly the sex attractant is used with an ammonium compound (ammonium sulfate or bicarbonate) and deltamethrin or GF-120. The problem, of course cannot be solved with this kind of idea exchanging, it can contribute, however, towards formulating IPM strategies for insect pest control.
Hi Sir,
As a class research, we recently tried partially crushed holy basil leaves placed in plastic bottles with holes on the sides to serve as traps. Males are attracted to the scent since they usually need it to attract mates. On the same time, we released Euborellia anulatta, earwigs which is usually easier to mass rear than other species, to feed on the fruit fly's pupae as they fall from the fruit into the ground for pupation. We've seen very good improvement on the Carambola fruits on the test area.
You can also spray Beauveria bassiana conidia around the base of each tree, say once a month, to colonize the pupae of fruit fly and other fruit insects that have a pupal stage that is carried out in the soil under fruit trees.
Entomopathogenic nematodes also do this job well, but are more expensive and not as accessible as B.bassiana in most countries.
If you wish to have a higher success rate in trapping and killing the flies that are attracted to the bait, a few drops of a trisiloxane based surfactant should suffice. This will reduce the surface tension of the liquid bait and the flies will drown. I have used this against flies and mosquito larvae which were breeding at a remote site I was working on in the rain forests of Indonesia and found this to be highly effective. No pesticide was used.Other conventional surfactants were not found to be as effective probably because they did not reduce the surface tension of the liquid enough.
As far as fruit flies are concerned, the suggestions given regarding the use of methyl eugenol and amino acid baits are all valid and are already effectively used in many parts of the world for a number of fruit fly species.Such traps can be made with locally available materials to reduce costs and permit mass trapping. Expensive traps will not be feasible. The suggestion of using blocks of plywood for soaking the bait is a tried and tested method in India.You could look at the initial timing of infestation and see whether mass trapping could be done on host crops that you are able to identify, before apples come to the fruiting stage so damage to apples can be reduced further.
However, I also suggest that you look at the American experience of managing this pest, there is a lot of literature available. Please look at the alternate hosts this breeds on and look for a long term strategy since a short term tactic may not be enough.
It may be difficult, but please consider planting of tall fodder crops or other similar alternatives, as a border around apple orchards as they will discourage fruit flies and enable predators like spiders to survive. Fodder crops are not normally sprayed with pesticides by farmers.
Dear Asad, adding to all what it was said about traps, talking in the side of the biological control ,why don't you go for Fopius arisanus, as it gaves very good results in Hawaii, its establishment is considered the most outstanding success in biological control of fruit flies and serve as model for release and suppression in other parts of the world same thing was done in Reunion Island a survey conducted in 2006, in Reunion island, on which B.zonata is the dominant species , showed that the level of parasitism on this host- ruit could reach 70-80%.
Suggestion: Take a look to the 8th International Symposium on Fruit Flies of Economic Importance (http://www.fruitflyvalencia2010.org/)
In Mauritius, fruit flies are being managed by using a double- pronged approach. One is a bait application technique which uses a protein hydrolysate mixed with an insecticide, and the other is the nailing on fruit trees small wooden blocks that have been soaked in a mixture of pheromones and insecticide. The pheromones attract the males, which settle on the wood and are killed by the insecticide in it. The pheromone mixture ensures that several species of fruit flies can be targeted simultaneously by this technique.
@Asad Ali: You may try using baiting. There are several types of baiting (such Cerabait, Bluminol) are now available to use against fruit fly. There is another lure and kill Device Called Magnet MED (developed by Sutera, Spain) can be used at a rate of 80 devices per h. It can last for 4-5 months. It contains 3 parts lure and the device is coated with deltramethrin. Also ceratrap a protein based lure can be used for mass trapping. Most importantly, orchard hyegine is very important.
@John Tsitsipis: in terms of spinosad resistance in fruitfly is very unlikely, although many other pests such as western flower thrips can acquired resistance against spinosad, development of resistance in fruit fly is not the case so far.
Here in Western Australia, we carried some trials with baiting and Magnet MED and it seems quite effective against Med fly in apple and other fruits
Hope this will be usefull
Fruit flies are attracted by the apple juice. Regular spray of prepared juice incorporated with appropriate dosage of neem leaf or neem seed aqueous extract may castrate the males or lower reproductive output over a period of time. The palatability of the apple will not be affected by the treatment.
Dear Asad Ali,
There is a product that we use in South Africa with great success. It is called the M3 fruit fly bait station. We use it in all types of crops, including apples. Visit the River Bioscience website. They distribute it.
Regards
Orchard hygiene is also very important. Collect all damaged and rotten fruits and dispose of them by deep burial. This will reduce the number of adults that emerge to attack your fruits.
Suggestion to collect all damaged and rotten fruits and keep clean of your farm to avoid any breeding sources of fruit fly. Besides for chemical control please do spot spraying using protein Hydrolyzed such as BF120 and Prima protein bait plus with insecticide such as a.i Fipronil 0.05%(Brand name- Regent). Spray around your farm parameter. Its very effective to kills both female and male fruit fly. Please also do the program called Male Inhalation Treatment (MAT) to kills all male population by using Pheromone such as Methyl Eugenol plus with Fipronil. Hope can help u.
rgrds Khairil
Integrated management system is fruitful way to manage this kind of pest likely larvae remain inside fruit. So togetherly use of poison bait and pheromone trap with cleaning of infested and dropped fruits.
What about trying an Ocimum tenuiflorum, or Ocimum sanctum trap. Its simple crush a handful of leaves and put it in a tall plastic container. The only problem will be u need to collect and kill the flies in every 30 minutes from the container.
Fruit flies can be controlled by using parasitoids like Opius spp. In addition, preventive control measures like immediate disposal of infested fruits, clean cultivation and digging the field of infested area for exposing fruit fly pupae for natural mortality factors.
As biological control, you could also investiged the possibility to use farm animals sheeps, ducks or poultry according to their palatability for apples and the damages they may cause on trees. In organic (or not) agriculture animals can be very usefull in fenced orchards as the graze weeds (no need for herbicide) and eat the fallen fruits where fruit flies pupate thus drastically reducing the population. Moreover animals can be sold for their meat.
Point 1: which fruit fly are talking about? Any biological control system is specific and must be adapted to the pest considered.
Point 2 : biological control is very much ecological/meteorological environment condition sensitive. Therefore any technique must be adjusted to them
Point 3: the most effective system for controlling cydia pomonella ( which is not a fly, but a moth) is the sterile insect technique (SIT): you will find explanation on the OKSIR ( Canada) site: www.oksir.org: after 3 years you reach a practical eradication
simple technique is setting traps with wasted wine or Apple cider vinegar, which is able to attract fruit flies much more efficient and works best. its cost efficient, but little time consuming process.
Back to Bernard's question - which fruit fly are you dealing with? Many of the responses so far seem to be for Drosophila susukii which doesn't really attack apple. The skin is to thick. I think you are probably dealing with a tephritid fly such as Rhagoletis pomonella. Having worked on apple pests for 28 years now and having spent much of that time specializing in biocontrol, I would say that timed chemical control is the only really effective method since this is a pest that attacks the fruit directly and you have a very short time frame to kill the adult before it oviposits the egg into the fruit where the larvae is untouchable. There are some specific parasitoids in NE USA that will attack Rhagoletis, but not at a high enough level to give commericial control. Bare soil below the trees will allow predators such as carabid and staphylinid larvae to feed on the late instar larvae and pupae as they fall to the ground fom infested apples. Infested apples are likely to drop early, so sanitation of the dropped apples can also help. Our Rhagoletis pomonella is pretty specific to apple, but if you are dealing with something like the Med Fly, then it has many alternate hosts that should be either removed or at least treated. I have tested most of the new insecticides registered in tree fruit over the last 28 years and would say that azinphosmethyl (an organophosphate that was just phased out of apple in the US) was the most effective. Thiacloprid (a neonicotinoid) is almost as effective, with Phosmet being a distant 3rd. Attract and kill bait balls with spinosad have been used with some success in very small orchards, but don't hold up to high pressure in large commercial blocks. If you are organic, spinosad is about the only option. If you are raising cider or vinegar apples, you don't need a high level of control, just prevent the rot from setting in and they will just be a bit of extra protein.
Another option we avoid because it disrupts biocontrol of mites, leafhoppers and aphids is the use of pyrethroid sprays, but they do give good control of Rhagoletis adults. If you are really talking about Drosophila species, control changes quite a bit, since you are talking about a dozen generations per year instead of only 1 or 2 and their susceptiblity to neonics such as thiacloprid mentioned before is much less. The organophosphate insecticides are still effective, including malathion, and some of the pyrethroids are even more effective. The 340 page Tree Fruit Production Guide that I help write for fruit growers in the eastern US can be downloaded for free at: http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/tfpg . Check pg 102 for Apple Maggot biology and control, table 4-5 on pg 210 for efficacy ratings of various pesticides and timing of sprays, and table 4-4 on page 209 for impact of those pesticides on bees and beneficial insects. Monitoring with red balls coated with tangle foot or yellow sticky cards are a key component in control as they give us an idea of timing and abundance so we can spray according to an economic threshold. Hope this helps. David
necesitamos identificar la especie de mosca de la fruta.
Para el manejo de esta plaga debemos asociar diferentes métodos de control, entre los mas importantes podemos señalar:
1) recojo y destrucción de la frutas agusanadas,
2) Poda de sanidad y raleo de árboles
3) Remoción de los primeros 5 cm del suelo, debajo del árbol.
4) Riegos pesados para ahogar pupas
5) Periodo de campo sin fruta después de la cosecha
6) Uso de trampas caseras, estas trampas se preparan con botellas de plástico descartable de 1 o 2 litros, el cual tienen 4 perforaciones circulares de 2cm de diámetro, interiormente se incorpora el liquido atrayente el cual esta compuesto por 40gr de fosfato diamónico mas 1 litro de agua, esta mezcla deberá reposar por 8 a 10 días, luego incorporarlo en las botellas; las botellas deberán ser colocadas en la parte media del árbol.
Asad,
You are getting a lot of good answers to your question, but unfortunately you have never answered the question from Bernard and myself as to which fruit fly you are working with?
Most of these suggestions are very species specific with some being for tephritids and some for drosophilids.
Also what kind of scale of apple production are you talking about. A few trees or several hectares or more? Small scale of less than a half hectare could be taken care of with chickens, sanitation and using baited red sticky balls, but large scale would require going back to pesticides. Biological control is pretty marginal for this pest, since you need a very high level of control for maintaining quality apples.
You mentioned Deptrix, but I have no idea what that is because it is a company trade name that changes from country to country. Much like the use of an inprecise common name such as fruit fly where we need a latin name to determine if it is the Med Fly rather than apple maggot, or possibly spotted wing drosophila. What is the pesticide common name? How are you timing your sprays? What traps and thresholds are you using to monitor and use for spray decisions? There is a degree day phenology model for Rhagoletis pomonella. You need to give us more information on the pest and the means you have tried to control it before this thread can go much further.
In Pakistan, most common species belong to Bactrocera genus like dorsalis and zonata.
Here ethyl eugenol as attractant and protein hydrolysate for spray on spots in orchards. Other practices include clean orchard as kindly suggested. Some work on biocontrol agents for indigenous and exotic species is also underway
Change in climate and inland transport of fruits and vegetables with open fruit markets are other major reasons for their spread which needs special attention
Dear Sir,
pheromones are best option for these two species especially methy eugenol.
Or if you will offer as bait fruits like guava or any cultivar of ripen mango in plastic tub before ripening of apple fruits. it will give you successful control.
What species you have in Pakistan? in Morocco, Ceratitis is the main species that attacks the apple tree. You can use food traps to reduce the population level to the maximum. bottles filled with vinegar and distributed in the orchard have shown their effectiveness in the fight against Ceratitis.
In Pakistan Bactrocera and ceratitis both main species which attack many fruits and vegetables including mango, guava citrus and apple. a single control technique alone is often not adequate to eradicate or even control the fruit fly especially Bactrocera dorsalis from an area efficiently. The best results are gained from a combination of the methods. For example, bait spraying, male annihilation, and good hygiene practices within orchards.
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