Integrated pest management of fruit flies, Bactrocera spp., in rainy season Guava in Indian Punjab Singh Sandeep* Department of Fruit Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab *Corresponding author: dhaliwal1969@pau.edu
Online published on 16 September, 2020. Abstract Guava, Psidium guajava L. is the prime fruit of Indian Punjab in which two important fruit flies, Bactrocera dorsalis and Bactrocera zonata, may destroy up to 100 per cent fruits of guava. These important pests are difficult to manage because they are polyphagous, multivoltine, with highly mobile and fecund adults and with immature stages that are protected inside fruits. Since applications of insecticides disrupt the agro-ecosystem, potential of an Integrated Pest Management approach in controlling these flies was examined. Eco-friendly and novel technologies comprising ploughing, sanitation, male annihilation technique (methyl eugenol based traps) and bait application technique (protein hydrolysate plus spinosad) were used for controlling the fruit flies. Overall, results revealed that fruit infestation was significantly low in the IPM treated orchards (5.80%) compared to the PAU recommendations (42.73%) and the untreated control (54.53%). Also, the number of maggots per fruit were significantly lower in the IPM treated orchards (20.82 per fruit) compared to the PAU (26.58) and the control orchards (32.26). The males captured per trap in the IPM orchard varied from 271.00 to 4031.70. The fruit yield was also significantly higher in the IPM orchard compared to the two other orchards. Likewise, the net income per acre was higher in the IPM orchard. The cost-benefit analysis showed about four times benefit in adopting IPM over following the standard recommendations. The results clearly revealed that IPM significantly reduced the infestation of fruit flies in guava. This means that IPM could help guava growers of Punjab increase the yield of quality marketable fruits by reducing the fruit fly infestation and dependence on insecticides. Top Keywords BAT, Fruit flies, Guava, Integrated Pest Management, MAT. Top |