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Mass trapping of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly: potential for effective control and sustainable adoption by growers

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Abstract

Mass trapping is one of the control methods developed to reduce insecticide use against the Mediterranean fruit fly. Despite its utility, especially as a component of IPM programs, adoption of mass trapping by citrus growers is constrained by multiple factors including the cost of traps, attractants and labor. The objective of our study was to minimize the cost of mass trapping by using two low-cost traps (GIFruits and Safia bottles) and by reducing the density of traps/Ha for the Conetrap® model. We also investigated if a late trap installation protect fruits as well as an early setting. Our results showed that GIFruits traps were effective to protect citrus, with < 3% of punctured fruits at harvest, and that a density of 20 Conetrap® traps/Ha ensured the same fruit protection as 40 traps/Ha. Safia bottle trap captured very few Medflies (0.52/trap/day) under high population levels compared to all traps tested. The first half of September could be the better period for trap installation in Tunisia or other Mediterranean regions with similar climate and same citrus season. Hence, the potential of mass trapping as an affordable and environmentally friendly technology is confirmed, but further research on the application of trapping is needed to refine the use of this tactic in the field.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Dr. Nicholas Manoukis (USDA-ARS USDKI Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo-Hawaï), Dr. Bernie Dominiak (New South Wales, Department of Primary Industries, Australia) and Dr. Vicente Navarro Llopis (Polytechnic University of Valencia-Spain) for reviewing earlier versions of this paper and for editorial assistance. The authors would like to thank the owners of orchards where trials have been conducted: Mr. Mohamed Snoussi and the late Mr. Jamel Snoussi, Mr. Abderrahmane Jerraya and Mrs. Lilia Belkhodja. The authors are also grateful to Mr. Fradj Jrad for his help in field work.

Funding

This study was funded by the resources provided by our Laboratory Research of Crop Pests and Integrated Control in Agriculture (Ministry of Higher Education and Research) with the collaboration of the Ministry of Agriculture (General Direction of Plant Health and Quality Control) as well as the companies Nutriplant (Tunisia), Probodelt (Spain) and the professional groupment GIFruits (Tunisia) for providing trapping devices.

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  1. Department of Plant Health and Environment. Research Laboratory of Crop Pests and Integrated Control in Agriculture, University of Carthage, National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia, 43 Av. Charles Nicolle, Mahrajène City, Tunis, 1082, Tunisia

    Meriem Tlemsani, Sabrine Attia & Synda Boulahia-Kheder

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  1. Meriem Tlemsani
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  2. Sabrine Attia
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Correspondence to Meriem Tlemsani.

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Tlemsani, M., Attia, S. & Boulahia-Kheder, S. Mass trapping of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly: potential for effective control and sustainable adoption by growers. Int J Trop Insect Sci 42, 2927–2936 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00819-1

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