[01] Muhammad Sarwar, Nuclear Institute for Agriculture & Biology, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

This article analyses different fruit fly’s management approaches and offers some solutions and options to deal with this most common pest issues in fruits and vegetables production. Today, gardeners and growers have the ability to control fruit flies successfully as a result of the development of biologically based sustainable pest management strategies that use environmentally friendly methods to suppress fruit flies to economically manageable levels. Specific control measures may be applied to reduce fruit fly populations to or below the specified level of low pest prevalence. Physical controls rely on good horticultural practices to prevent or reduce the probability of fruit fly infestations, and in the absence of that option, the incidence of pest is likely to increase and infestation can be difficult to manage. For this purpose the decision includes creating of barriers and placing of traps for removal of insect pests, and these methods should be considered the first line of defense. Sampling and monitoring are critical to assess the presence and level of prevalence of the target fruit fly species. Parameters used to determine the level of fruit fly prevalence is flies per trap per day that is the result of dividing the total number of captured flies by the product obtained from multiplying the total number of inspected traps by the average number of days the traps have been exposed. Physical controls create a barrier between the pest and the fruit to decrease the probability of fruit flies infestation. Covering of individual fruits (for peaches and other larger fruits), fruiting clusters or entire fruiting plants (for berries) with a fine netting (0.98 mm mesh), nylon stocking or paint strainer bag are promising options. Taking up of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is knowledge intensive and ecologically based decision making process that uses a variety of management tools and methodologies to suppress fly pest populations to acceptable levels but relies primarily on natural mortality factors.

Tephritidae, Diptera, Fruit Fly, Vegetable, Fruit, Physical Control

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