Push‐pull strategy for integrated control of Bactrocera minax (Diptera, Tephritidae) based on olfaction and vision

Abstract

Chinese citrus fly Bactrocera minax is a major destructive pest of citrus fruits. The adult stage of B. minax is the critical life stage for control measures because all other life stages are hidden either in infested host fruit or in soil. Therefore, we established a push‐pull system for the control of adults B. minax. Three types of attractants were tested in two orchards. With these attractants, the percentage of infested fruits was reduced from 95.0% to 75.4% and from 89.6% to 72.4% for navel orange and satsuma mandarin, respectively. The in‐house developed food attractant displayed the best reduction compared to two commercial attractants. The food attractant traps (pull) combined with Xanthium sibiricum leaf extract as the repellent (push) hung on a copse at the edge of the orchard fields further reduced the fruit infestation rate from 75.5% to 7.6% in the navel orchards and from 100.0% to 5.6% in the satsuma orchards. When the green luring balls were added as a visual cue to the pull component, the percentage of infested fruits in the orchards was further reduced from 27.8% and 36.6% to 0.4% and 2.9%, respectively. In this five‐year study, B. minax was effectively controlled using behavioural manipulation of their response to olfactory and visual cues in a push‐pull control strategy.