Field trials of lures to attract fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in commercial sapodilla, mamey sapote, and carambola orchards in Puerto Rico

Abstract

Field trials in Puerto Rico were conducted to compare the attractiveness of the standard bait of pelletized torula yeast/borax with a two-component (ammonium acetate and putrescine) synthetic lure for Anastrepha spp. within orchards of sapodilla, mamey sapote, and carambola. In addition, the trapping was conducted to provide information on the fruit fly pressure and species composition within these three fruit crops. In sapodilla and mamey sapote, significantly more female and male flies were collected over the entire collection periods in traps containing torula yeast than with the twocomponent synthetic lure. Fruit fly pressure from predominantly A. suspensa within sapodilla was extremely high; in contrast, very few of either species was found in mamey sapote. Within carambola, significantly more flies were captured with the two-component synthetic lure, and the predominant species was A. obliqua. With both lure types, more female flies than males were captured within all fruit plots.