Extension of the use of Augmentoria for Sanitation in a cropping system susceptible to the alien terphritid fruit flies (Diptera: terphritidae) in Hawaii.

Tephritid fruit flies are a major problem of fruit and vegetable crops throughout the world. Management programs for the control of these pests use a range of techniques, but sequestering fruit to prevent progeny survival is often overlooked. This study reports efforts to demonstrate to growers of fruiting crops a technique to sequester emerging adult flies while conserving their parasitoid natural enemies. Demonstration trials were conducted in 4 phases to determine whether growers on the Island of Hawaii would use a tent-like structure (augmentorium) to sequester fruit-fly infested, culled fruit. In phase 1 it was shown that 1127 Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) were recovered from cull fruit removed to the augmentorium, and that the combination of bait spray, male lure trapping and sanitation could reduce the level of infestation. Subsequently phase 2 confirmed the three techniques disrupted the breeding cycle and 2 farmers were convinced to use these techniques. In phase 3, further expansion to 12 farms, whose 15 augmentoria were monitored, indicated that over 80% of the growers used the tents (22,217 adult flies recovered from the tents over 1260 days). In phase 4, success of phases 1 to 3 convinced 30 farms to requested 40 augmentoria and an opinion survey of those growers is reported. Implications for use of augmentoria to sequester other insect pests and release their natural enemies, is discussed.