Final report of the co-ordinated research programme on medfly female attractants

Experiments were conducted to find the most effective combination of traps and lures for use in two different climates - the coastal and the desert regions of Israel. Three trials were conducted following the IAEA CRP- phase 4 protocol. Two simultaneous trials were carried out around June 1997. One was in a citrus grove in Tsrifin, the coastal region, and the other in a mango grove in Hatseva, the Arava Valley, a desert region where there has been on ongoing SIT program since January 1998. A third trial was also conducted in Tsrifin, at the same location as the first trial, but during February 1998. In all trials, the International Pheromone's McPhail Trap (IPMT) with NuLure + borax (NU+B) was the standard trap. The FA-3 attractants (ammonium acetate, putrescine, and trimethylamine) were used with water and surfactant Triton-X (wet version) or without water but with DDVP (dry version) in IPMT and Tephri traps. Treatments and traps included in the trials were: IPMT, FA-3, wet; IPMT, FA-3, dry; Tephri, FA-3, dry; Tephri, FA-3, wet. The results of these trials indicated that, at both locations, medfly populations differed greatly - 153 versus 82,500 flies at Hatseva and Tsrifin, respectively. All traps caught more females than males. At Tsrifin, the Tephri, FA-3 traps outperformed the IPMT, NU+B, capturing 4 to 5 times more than standard (IPMT,NU+B). The addition of water to the traps at this location resulted in a slight decrease in captures. At Hatseva, the addition of water improved capturing in both IPMT and Tephri traps. Replacing the water with ethylene glycol resulted in the highest capture level indicating the importance of humidity to the trap performance. (author)