Performance of different shapes of traps in capturing Bactrocera spp. (Diptera: Tephritidae) in peach and pear orchards

Abstract

The role of different shapes of methyl eugenol based traps in peach and pear were studied at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India against major fruit fly species i.e. Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) and Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel). In this experiment, cylindrical traps, spherical traps, triangular traps and PAU fruit fly traps were used. The results revealed that triangular traps (71.58 males) had captured significantly more population followed by cylindrical traps (38.86 males), PAU fruit fly traps (29.61 males) and spherical traps (21.30 males) in peach; whereas in pear, the number of fruit fly males captured/trap/week were significantly high in triangular traps (127.92 males) as compared to PAU fruit fly traps (55.30 males), cylindrical traps (51.08 males) and spherical traps (42.44 males). The mean percentage of fruit fly damage was also lowest in triangular traps in peach (4.33%) and in pear (6.72%) respectively. However, cost: benefit ratio was quite low in triangular traps in both peach (1:30.86) and pear (1:20.93).