Mango fruit fly parasitizes the flesh, making the fruit lose its commercial value; how to control it?

    Fruit flies cannot be effectively controlled with the pesticide application methods used for ordinary pest insects. The larvae parasitize the mango flesh, so pesticides must be used with caution to prevent pesticide residues. Once a mango is parasitized and eggs are laid by fruit flies, it has effectively lost its commercial value. Through control efforts over the past two years, it has been concluded that integrated control during the mango ripening period can reduce fruit fly population density and reduce losses. The integrated control methods are as follows:

Mango fruit fly

    1. Orchard sanitation method.For affected orchards, remove fallen fruit from the ground once a week and dispose of it in a centralized manner. Methods: ① Dig a pit (more than 50 cm deep) and bury deeply, sprinkling quicklime on the buried rotten mangoes for disinfection. ② Water immersion method: after cleaning up diseased and insect-infested rotten fruit, put it into a manure pit or biogas digester, where it rots and ferments to make fertilizer, or put it into a fish pond to feed fish. Insect-infested mangoes must not be thrown away in the orchard or in mountain gullies.

    2. Physical trapping method.① Use methyl eugenol, a dedicated attractant for fruit flies, for trapping and killing. Open two small holes in the upper part of an empty mineral water bottle so fruit flies can enter, put in methyl eugenol, then hang the bottle on the fruit tree, replacing it once every 15—20 days; ② Adhesive: spray the physical sticky attractant — Nianwang directly onto the inside and outside of empty mineral water bottles with the bottom cut off, plastic cups, fertilizer bags, plastic boards, etc., and hang them in cool, ventilated places on the mango tree. Replace once every 15-20 days, placing 8-10 per mu. After the control period ends, take them down, clean them up, and burn them. ③ Yellow sticky board trapping. Hang 8-15 yellow sticky boards per mu.

    3. Fruit bagging.Bag mangoes comprehensively. At harvest, harvest the mangoes together with the bags. After selling the fruit, thoroughly clean up the fruit bags and diseased and insect-infested fruit and burn them in a centralized manner.

    4. Pesticide control.① Trunk and canopy spraying method: spray fruiting trees with beta-cypermethrin and emamectin benzoate. Stop 20 days before harvest; ② Ground spraying method: spray the ground of fruiting orchards once every 15-20 days until harvest is finished; ③ Tree disk spraying and scattering method: apply quicklime or phoxim to the tree disk of mango trees 2-3 times, especially in winter.

    Fruit fly control requires frequent prevention and frequent treatment, long-term persistence, and the integrated use of multiple methods. Orchard sanitation in the mango orchard is key.