Bio-efficacy of Different Traps and Baits Under Field Condition to Control Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thnub.) Matsum & Nakai)

Tephritid fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are the major damaging pest for the Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thumb.) Matsum. & Nakai). The quality as well as quantity of watermelon is greatly affected by fruit fly. This study was conducted to test the efficacy of different traps and baits for fruit fly control. The experiment was designed in a randomized complete block design containing eight treatments and three replications. Each treatment, 0.2 ml of cue lure as an attractant and 0.1 ml of malathion was used as a toxicant except control. Treatments were installed when the flowering was started. Data collection and treatment replacement were done simultaneously in every 6-day interval. The findings revealed that the diverse fruit fly species (up to 7) were trapped in all treatments however, the Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett, 1889) followed by Zeugodacus tau (Walker, 1849) were dominating over the other species in all treatments. Yellow sticky trapped the highest number of fruit flies (15.01±0.38), followed by brewery wastage (13.65±0.37). The male-female ratio of the trapped fly was (>1) in all treatments. Furthermore, the lowest fruit fly damaged percentage (0.87±0.16) with the highest obtainable yield (32.57±1.31) and benefit-cost ratio (1.63±0.06) was observed in the yellow sticky trap. From this experiment, the yellow sticky trap captured more fruit flies caused the least amount of fruit fly damage, and yielded the highest possible yield than the other treatments.