Food Attractants Used in the Fruit Fly Monitoring (Diptera: Tephritidae) in a Commercial Orchard of Psidium guajava

Abstract

Fruit flies are considered an important fruit pest for world fruit production because they cause significant losses to the production and limit fruit free transport due to quarantine restrictions imposed by importing countries. Fruit flies population dynamics knowledge of a particular region is an important factor in the management of this pest. Traps are devices created to attract and capture flies by sexual attraction or food attraction, both put inside the trap. It reduces fruit flies population in the orchard, decreasing the pressure and chances of an infestation. This research aimed to evaluate the efficiency of food baits in the fruit flies capture on guava plant culture, in order to establish an adequate program for this pest in the municipality of Nova Floresta – PB. Monitoring of the adult fruit-fly was performed with aid of plastic traps of the type PET bottle 330 mL of Bio Anastrepha® 5.0%, 440 mL of sugarcane molasses diluted to 10.0% and 520 mL of 30.0% fruit juice (guava). The traps were installed in the central part of the trees, approximately 1.50 m above ground. Every 15 days adult fruit flies were caught, the occasion that food baits were replaced. From these data were evaluated: efficiency of food baits, MAD index (flies/trap/day) and food baits cost-benefit analysis. The best food attractant at the lowest cost was Bio Anastrepha® at 5.0%, with a catch margin of 63.83%, followed by fruit juice at 30.0% and sugarcane molasses at 10.0%, with 34.04% and 2.13%, respectively.