Control Methods for Mango Fruit-piercing Moth Pests and Diseases

I. Damage. The more serious pests include the fruit-piercing moth (Oraesia emarginata), the bird-beak fruit-piercing moth, the dead-leaf fruit-piercing moth, and the super-bridge fruit-piercing moth. The adult moths use their sharp mouthparts to pierce into the fruit and suck the juice of the flesh, causing the fruit to drop. Fruit pierced before harvest will rot during storage and transport.

II. Morphological characteristics. The morphological characteristics of the fruit-piercing moth (Oraesia emarginata), the bird-beak fruit-piercing moth, and the dead-leaf fruit-piercing moth each differ.

1. Fruit-piercing moth (Oraesia emarginata): also called the peach yellow-brown noctuid. The adult's head and prothorax are reddish-brown, while the mesothorax, metathorax, and abdomen are brown. The female's antennae are filiform, and the male's antennae are bipectinate. The tip of the forewing is prominent. The middle of the outer margin protrudes into a horn shape, and the middle of the inner margin is concave in an arc; the ground color of the forewing is reddish-brown or purple, with the median transverse line and the diagonal streak running from the wing tip to the middle of the inner margin being darker in color; the hindwing is yellow-brown, with the inner side of the outer margin grayish-brown.

2. Bird-beak fruit-piercing moth: the adult body is brown, the head and prothorax are reddish-orange, and the mesothorax and metathorax are ochre. The forewing is purple-brown with line markings, the wing tip is hook-shaped, the middle of the outer margin is rounded and protruding, and the middle of the inner margin is concave in an arc shape; from the wing tip diagonally toward the middle there are 2 parallel dark brown lines, and the reniform line is distinct; the hindwing is light brown, with the area along the outer margin and apex angle being reddish-brown, and the fringe hairs light brown.

3. Dead-leaf fruit-piercing moth: also called the tomato noctuid. The adult's antennae are filiform. The head and thorax are reddish-brown, and the dorsal abdomen is apricot-yellow. The forewing is dead-leaf brown, with a dark brown diagonal streak running from the wing tip to the concave part of the inner margin. The hindwing is apricot-yellow, with one curved and one reniform black spot.

III. Life habits. The life habits of these 3 pest species also differ from one another.

1. Fruit-piercing moth (Oraesia emarginata): 4-6 generations occur per year, with overlapping generations, overwintering as mature larvae and pupae. Adults can be found from May to November. Activities such as feeding, mating, and egg-laying all take place at night, and activity is generally most intense before 10 p.m. Eggs are laid singly on tender leaves and tender stems. The mature larvae spin silk to roll leaves, soil particles, and the like into a tube and hide inside it, pupating at the base of the tree trunk, in clumps of weeds, or in the surface soil layer.

2. Bird-beak fruit-piercing moth: 4-5 generations occur per year, overwintering as adults, larvae, or pupae. The adults are active at night and suck the juice of many kinds of fruit. They are phototactic. After adult emergence, they must feed on sugar as nutrition before they can mate and lay eggs. The larvae feed on tender leaves, and the mature larvae often pupate in clumps of weeds near the base of the host plant, making a thin cocoon with silk, leaves, and broken twigs.

3. Dead-leaf fruit-piercing moth: 2-3 generations occur per year, mostly overwintering as larvae. After dusk, they fly into the orchard to damage fruit; they increase after dark and hide after dawn. After adult emergence, they mate in the evening, and eggs are laid on the undersides of the leaves of the host plant. The larvae feed on the host leaves, and the mature larvae enter the soil to pupate. Adults can be seen damaging fruit from August to November.

IV. Control methods. First, remove the host plants of the larvae; within a 500 m range of the orchard, clear weeds to reduce the sources of the pests. Second, choose paper with good water absorbency, cut it into 5 cm × 6 cm pieces, drip an appropriate amount of citronella oil on them, and hang them evenly in the tree canopy in the evening; this can repel the adults. For 5-7-year-old trees, hang 5-10 pieces per tree, collect them in the morning, add drips of citronella oil the next evening before hanging them again, and continue this until the fruit is harvested. Third, before the fruit ripens, collect nearly ripe fallen fruit, keep the peel at both ends, remove the rest, pierce the flesh with a needle, soak in a 20-fold dilution of 90% trichlorfon for about 10 minutes, take them out, thread them with string, and hang them in the tree; this has a certain trapping and killing effect on fruit-piercing noctuids that damage both injured and healthy fruit. Fourth, at night, use a flashlight to illuminate and catch the adults. Fifth, in the middle stage of fruit growth, cover the fruit with paper bags; the control effect is very good.