Whenever insects come out of the fruits brought from the market or garden, it is a kind of confusion as to how insects appeared in the normal-looking fruit, then the reason for this is the fruit fly. Fruit fly and fruit-sucking insects are one of the main causes of decay of citrus fruits. Fruit fly: Attack of two species of fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis and Bactrocera zonata has been observed on citrus fruits in Punjab.
The female fly makes a hole in the changing color of the fruit with the sharp part of her ovipositing needle and lays eggs under the upper surface. The male fly does not cause any harm. By ovipositor in the pierced fruit, they become deep and their color appears dark green. Gradually, the damaged part around the hole in the fruit starts spreading and turns yellow. The white-yellow colored caterpillars emerge from the eggs and enter the pulp of the fruit and start eating it from inside. If the attacked fruits are cut and seen, many caterpillars are seen without legs. Due to the attack of flies, holes are formed on the attacked fruits due to which the fruit gets attacked by bacteria and voles. In this way the fruits rot and gradually fall down and become inedible.
Its attack is very serious during the rainy season, juice comes out by pressing the damaged stem. Apart from kinnow fruit, attack of these flies was also seen on grapefruit, seasonal fruits and lemon. Apart from citrus fruits, attack of these flies has also been seen on guava, peach, pear, mango, aloocha, Loquat, grapes, sapota, and other fruits. Attacks on neem orchards in hilly areas are more common than in Kendari district and dry Senju district. If there are guava, pear, peach, aloocha and mango orchards near the kinnow orchard, there is serious attack of fruit fly. The main period of attack in citrus orchards is usually from August to October.
Prevention of fruit flies
Prevention of these flies is difficult because they attack many fruit plants, many generations are produced in a year, adult flies are capable of long flight and the flies live more than three months. Lives. Apart from this, a female fly lays more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime. Its eggs and caterpillars are in the fruit, after the caterpillars are completely developed in the fruit, they go into the soil where they pupate and emerge as flies.
Cleaning the orchard
To prevent fruit fly, cleaning the orchard and destroying or burning the affected fruits by pressing them is very beneficial. All affected fruits should be destroyed. The caterpillar fruits that fall on the ground below the plant help in increasing the fly population. Therefore, it is important to destroy these caterpillar-bearing fruits. By doing this, the number of corn is greatly reduced at the end of the season. To prevent this fly, it is very important to destroy the fruits that have fallen on the ground. Damage: The fruits should be buried by digging a 60 cm deep pit.
The pit should be closed well with soil and the pit should be left covered for a long time. By doing this, different stages of the fly cannot come out of the soil. It is very important to do this in orchards, otherwise, the aroma of fallen fruits will attract fruit flies from a distance and hence the attack is likely to be serious. Gardeners should take care that after harvesting the fruits, they should also pluck and destroy the remaining small fruits. By doing this, the number of flies does not grow on fruits out of season.
For environmental control of fruit flies, apply fruit fly traps (16 traps per acre) in the second week of August. If necessary, apply traps again after 30 days.