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Management of Cucurbit Fruit Flies in Bitter Gourd by Pheromone Trap–A Success Story

Gayathri Subbiah

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is one of the most popular vegetable cultivated throughout India. Cucurbit fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), is one of the most important pests of cucurbits in crop growing areas. The extent of losses varies between 30% to 100%, depending on the cucurbit species and the season. It prefers to infest young, green, soft skinned fruits. It inserts the eggs 2 mm to 4 mm deep in the fruit tissues, and the maggots feed inside the fruit. Pupation occurs in the soil at 0.5 cm to 15 cm below the soil surface. Because of the difficulties associated with the control of this pest by chemical insecticides, farmers experienced great losses in cucurbits. Keeping in view the importance of the pest and crop, fruit fly management was tested under Frontline Demonstration (FLD) conducted under farmer field conditions to assess losses and to measure the efficacy of pheromone traps in trapping the adult flies. The trail resulted in 20% increase in yield along with complete reduction in the usage of chemical pesticide which was applied earlier. This resulted in reducing the cost of chemicals nearly INR. 3,000 per acre which was spent earlier.