Top: Mediterranean fruit fly. To more effectively
keep medflies out of the United States and controlled in other countries, a
patented three-chemical lure developed by ARS and Suterra, LLC, can be used in
a trap like the one shown in the bottom photo. Click the images for more
information about them. |
Success Controlling Medfly
By Kim Kaplan
July 21, 2005
A lure developed by the Agricultural
Research Service and Suterra LLC is
helping keep the Mediterranean fruit fly out of the United States and giving
other countries an effective, environmentally friendly control method.
The product, BioLure 3-Component Fruit Fly Lure, is being
commercialized by Suterra, which holds the exclusive license for the ARS
patents. Suterra is marketing it in the United States, Spain, South Africa,
Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.
Growers and government agencies in these countries are now using
BioLure 3-Component Fruit Fly Lure as an effective tool to monitor for medfly
presence as well as reducing medfly populations by mass trapping.
Each year in Spain, for example, mass trapping is done on thousands of
acres of citrus groves using BioLure 3-Component Fruit Fly Lure. Spanish plant
health agencies have found mass-trapping with the lure is as effective as
insecticides at controlling medfly damage without leaving pesticide residues on
fruit or harming beneficial insects.
BioLure 3-Component Fruit Fly Lure is a combination of three
compounds: ammonium acetate, putrescine and trimethylamine. It captures more
medflies and fewer nontarget insects, is more consistent between batches and
lasts four to eight times as long, compared to protein baits. Also, BioLure
3-Component Fruit Fly Lure attracts mostly female medflies, which is important
in areas where sterile male insect control programs are being used.
Chemist
Robert
R. Heath and entomologist
Nancy
D. Epsky, at the ARS
Subtropical
Horticultural Research Laboratory in Miami, Fla., are experts in
semiochemicalschemical signals for insect communication. Heath and Epsky
worked with scientists at Suterra, who are experts at long-term controlled
release of volatile chemicals, to develop the new lure.
The medfly is one of the most destructive agricultural insects in the
world. The United States is eager to see medfly populations reduced in other
countries because if they become established here, it could cost as much as
$1.5 billion dollars a year due to export sanctions, lost markets, treatment
costs and crop losses.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.