Mass trapping for the control of the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitatain citrus orchards in Tunisia

Abstract: This work aims to evaluate the mass trapping technique based on the use offemale food-attractant lure Tri-pack® and the insect growth regulators lufenuron for thecontrol of medfly in citrus field. These methods were used as alternative to chemical controlwith malathion spraying in Washington navel orange orchards in 2006 and 2007. Theassessment of the mass trapping technique efficacy was based on adult medfly populationreduction expressed by weekly recording of male captures together with the assessment offruit damage at harvest. Trials were conducted using a density of 20 traps/ha. Resultsindicated significant differences in male captures and fruit damage percentages between thetwo tested methods and the control (malathion spraying). Concerning adult males medflycaptures, reductions of 62.86% and 47.29% were achieved respectively for the mass trappingbased on lufenuron and Tri-pack® respectively in 2007. For fruit damage assessment, resultsshowed reduction of 9.68% for the mass trapping based on lufenuron and 31.99% for themass trapping based on Tri-pack® compared to the control.