Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Fruit flies (Tephritidae) are serious pests that cause enormous losses for farmers in many countries. The frequent use of insecticides in controlling fruit flies in fruits and vegetable has not resulted in sustainable management of the pest. Problems associated with this complete reliance on chemical control are many residues of insecticides in crops, health problems for farmers, contamination of water and soil, insecticide resistance development and decrease in natural enemy populations. The implementation of control measures that do not imply an added burden to the environment and/or the farmers is urgent. More knowledge about the ecology of fruit flies is the basis for finding new and better ways to control this pest. This study aimed at 1) develop and testing of a modified Steiner trap constructed from used water bottles, 2) investigating the diurnal activity of adult males of Bactrocera cucurbitae and Bactrocera dorsalis, 3) monitoring for resistance to commonly used insecticides in B. cucurbitae and 4) conducting a survey among farmers with a focus on management of fruit flies. The research was carried out in Kamphaeng Saen, northwestern part Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand from July to August 2009. We constructed an efficient trap from recycled bottles at the cost of 30 US cents (2.06 SEK) that can be used for monitoring and possibly also pest control. The results from the diurnal activity experiment suggest that B. cucurbitae and B. dorsalis are active in the morning. B. dorsalis showed an activity peak between 7 and 8 am. The activity for both species was low before noon and during the first hours of the afternoon. The bioassay gave no indications of development of resistance to the insecticides tested. Results from farmer surveys revealed that most of farmers have problems with fruit flies. The amount of insecticides used in the fields is great and the flora of the compounds is much diversified. We found also that the farmers spray their fields very frequently during a growing period until approximately one week before harvest and the spraying was carried out in a big degree during the cool hours of the day. The results also show that more than 50% of the farmers used protective equipment. I conclude that since the situation about the control of these pests is unsustainable the need for further and more intensive studies in this topic is urgent to carry out. But first of all is of priority to work together with farmers in the issue of the use of environmental friendly control methods to go away from the dependence of insecticides.