Mass trapping is as effective as ground bait sprays for the control of Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae) fruit flies in mango orchards

BACKGROUND Anastrepha fruit flies are considered one of the main phytosanitary problems for the fresh fruit industry in the USA, Caribbean islands and Latin America. Since 1994, the Mexican government has implemented the National Fruit Fly Program using an area‐wide integrated pest management approach. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of mass trapping and compare it with ground GF‐120 spraying against Anastrepha obliqua and Anastrepha ludens populations in mango cv. Ataulfo orchards. RESULTS Multilure® traps baited with Ceratrap® or Biolure® captured significantly more fruit flies than Captor 300 in field cage tests. Mass trapping and ground GF‐120 spray significantly suppressed fruit fly populations compared with untreated plots. In Multilure traps placed in untreated plots, we captured significantly more fruit flies than in treated plots with mass trapping or GF‐120 sprays. Plots treated with either mass trapping or GF‐120 sprays reduced the percentage of infested fruit significantly compared with untreated plots. There was no difference between mass trapping and GF‐120 ground bait spraying. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrate that mass trapping was as effective as GF‐120 ground spraying for the control of fruit flies in mango cv. Ataulfo orchards. The suppression effect of mass trapping was similar to GF‐120 ground bait spraying. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry