Effectiveness of Tepa-Sterilized Mexican Fruit Flies Released in Mango Grove

Experiments conducted during 1962 and 1963 in a 10-acre mango grove in Morelos, Mexico, involved the release of Mexican fruit flies, Anastrepha ludens (Loew), chemosterilized by dipping the puparia in a 5% aqueous solution of tepa. By releasing the flies in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the natural population present in the mango grove during development of the principal crop, protection of most of the crop was effected.