Lure and kill for management of medfly
in stone and pome fruit
Sonya Broughton & Touhidur Rahman,
Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia,
3 Baron- Hay Court, South Perth Western Australia 6151,
[email protected]
Magnet™MED decreased crop losses of apples and nectarines by 40-500% compared to the untreated
control on some orchards.
Though often more effective than conventional control methods , it cannot be used alone.
Growers will need to apply protein bait and/or cover sprays to reduce losses to economically acceptable
levels.
Funding is being sought to determine if the sterile insect technique can be combined with mass
trapping or lure and kill, particulary in urban and peri-urban areas as part of area-wide management
and eradication protocols.
40-500%
reduction
Background
• Female Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) require dietary protein
to develop ovaries and mature their eggs, and males require protein to mature their
testes.
• The need for, and attraction of medfly to protein odours is being exploited in mass
trapping and lure and kill.
• Magnet™MED (MM) lure and kill is a device incorporating synthetic food lures
(ammonium acetate, trimethyl amine, putrescine) in a laminated envelope coated with
insecticide.
• Whilst MM is effective under European conditions, its performance under the harsher
Australian climate was not known.
• To determine if MM could be used as a control on its own, or is more effective when
combined with conventional control methods such as cover spraying and foliage
baiting in pome and stonefruit.
Methods
• Trials were conducted in the Perth Hills Western Australia from 2011–2014.
• The climate is warm temperate, with hot, dry summers (December to February)
and cool, wet winters (June to August). Mean monthly daily air temperatures range from
16.2–18.2ºC (min) to 22.3–36.0ºC (max) in summer, and 8.5–13.6ºC (min) to
19.3–25.7ºC (max) in winter. Heat waves with consecutive days >35ºC are common in
summer.
• Commercial orchards consisted of blocks of different cultivars of apples, pears,
peaches, plums, and nectarines.
Orchards were divided into control and experimental areas of approximately equal size.
• MM devices were installed at the rate of 80 devices/ha, 1–3 months prior to harvest.
• Two traps/ha (one pair of male and female selective traps) were used to monitor
medfly abundance; fruits wereexamined for fruit fly damage (larvae, oviposition) at
harvest.
Magnet™MED
Results
• Only crop loss due to medfly infestation (oviposition stings/maggots) is reported here.
• Some orchardists also applied cover sprays of fenthion (1 or 2 sprays per crop), weekly bait
sprays of maldison (Hy–mal), or both (conventional control) to the MM and non–MM
treatment areas.
• At least one untreated orchard (no additional chemical control) was included where possible.
Example trial layout within an orchard. Squares
and circles indicate monitoring trap locations.
2011/12
Karragullen neglected
Jarrahdale orchard 1 7%
neglected
17%
13.5%
2.5%
percentageof
ofnectarines
stonefruit infested
stung/infested
(meanerror
± SEM)
Percentage
(mean ± standard
of the mean (SEM))
Jarrahdale orchard 5
2.5%
Jarrahdale orchard 2
organic
0.5%
Jarrahdale orchard 3
Karragullen
Jarrahdale orchard 5
Carmel
4%
2%
Jarrahdale orchard 1 58.1%
neglected
29.75%
Jarrahdale orchard 3
9.3%
Karragullen
percentage of plums infested (mean ± SEM)
2%
8%
3%
Jarrahdale orchard 1
neglected
9.3%
10%
12%
2%
5%
9.6%
4.3%
Jarrahdale orchard 4
1.75%
4%
1%
0.75%
Jarrahdale orchard 5
3%
4.6%
4%
Carmel
2011/12
9%
2013/14
2%
5%
Percentage of apples stung (mean ± SEM)
LEGEND
Acnowledgments
We thank Paul Murphy, Amanda Page, Bill Woods, Amandip Virdi, Alven Soopaya, and Kevin Lacey
from DAFWA, and Steven David from Organic Farming Systems, for technical assistance.
Charlie and Matt Borg, Frank Ciminata, Gordon Day, Loui Gianetti, Anthony Fullam, Ray Leotta,
David Simmons, Kim Tucker and John Vetta all kindly provided access to their orchards for trial work.
Funding for the project was provided by DAFWA, Horticulture Australia Ltd, Fruitwest and
Summerfruit Australia.
MM
vs untreated control
MM
+ conventional control
untreated control
baiting
MM
MM + baiting
MM
+ multiple conventional controls
cover spray + baiting
MM + cover spray + baiting
cover spray
MM + cover spray
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