There is a need for an alternative! “Cold treatments”, i.e. prolonged storage at cold temperature - close to freezing, are acceptable treatments for several citrus against quarantine pests like fruit flies. “Hot treatments” i.e. immersion in hot water for 1-2 h, are acceptable for some others like mango. In some cases irradiation is also acceptable (but for only a few countries like the USA). Seeking for an alternative methodology, I wonder, does anybody know? was ultrasound ever tested on fruits?
Yes, you can use a ultrasound alarms in a periphery of 3.40 meters away in a row you will find good results, and most of the insects they will move away.Larvae are very sensitive to ultrasound.
Are you asking about storage environment? There has been some research done on the use of acoustic energy for causing tissue damage and disrupting development in larvae feeding on stored grains, but nothing useful came out of it yet. The problem is dissipation of sound energy at larger distances (especially when the product we want to protect acts as a barrier), but also if you deliver sound strong enough to damage insects, you might damage soft fruit tissues as well.
We recently published a review on the use of vibrations for pest control that briefly mentions this topic, please refer to that for citations (see the attachment).
As for "ultrasound alarms", they would only be effective against insects able to perceive ultrasound (moths), and would probably soon be rendered ineffective because of behavioral adaptation.
Thank you for you answers. I was not asking about storage grains. My question was referring to fruit flies larvae present in fruit (or vegetables). Would these too be sensitive to ultrasound?
I meant to say that the approach was tested in storage environment, but the cases I was aware of only include grain. Damage of the products by ultrasound was not an issue there (at least the authors didn't report it), but I mentioned it because the fruits are softer and might be sensitive.
Searching for a mention of this, I found only reports describing the use of ultrasound against fruit-infecting microbes. There was one attempt of treating asparagus spears against thrips, but was not successful (van Epenhuijsen et al. 1997. Energy, ultrasound and chemical treatments for the disinfestation of fresh asparagus spears. Proc. 50th N. Z. Plant Prot. Conf. 50:436–431). You might also want to check the review paper Vincent et al. (2003). Management of agricultural insects with physical control methods. Ann Rev of Entomol 48: 261-281.
Do you mean Anastrepha and Ceratitis capitata larva ? Ultrasound Works well for small insects on leaf tissue like thrips and spider mites, however for larvae of fruit flies inside fruits does not work well. It is better with pulsed electric field. Hallman and Zhang (1997) found that pulsed electric field in vitro inhibited the development of Mexican fruit fly Anastrepha ludens eggs and larvae. As few as three 50 us pulses at 5 kW/cm prevented normal puparation and adult emergence. However more work needs to be done to study the efficacy of this methodology.
Best wishes,
Luis Miguel
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