Attraction and retention-period of different stuffs and stuffing techniques with their active food baits for the management of peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Diptera: Tephritidae).

Field studies were conducted to evalaute the effectivess and active food-bait retention periods of 12 bait-stations with four stuffing materials and three stuffing techniques for 2 months in citrus, mango and guava orchards. GF-120 (commercially available food-bait) was used as standard. Results revealved that active retention-period of GF-120 was maximum in bait-station stuffed with three layers of jute (BSJ-3) after 6 weeks. BSJ-3 proved more effective for the application of food-bait followed by bait-station stuffed with two layers of jute (BSJ-2), that stuffed with three layers of coconut-husk (BSCH-3), that stuffed with two layers of foam (BSF-2), that stuffed with three layers of foam (BSF-3) and that stuffed with three layers of dried lufa (BSL-3) which were equally effective. The results also revealed that jute proved better stuffing material followed by foam, coconut-husk and dried-lufa while three-layer stuffing technique proved better followed by two-layers and one-layer for the preparation of bait-station for B. zonata. So three-layer stuffing of jute with GF-120 may be helpful in the development of bait station for the management of B. zonata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]