Study on impact of fruit fly (Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett)) management tactics in Pumpkin

This present field study was undertaken under Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dibrugarh to evaluate the performance of different fruit fly management tactics over two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) consisting with four different treatments i.e, Use of pheromone trap @28nos/ha; Neem oil @ 3ml/litre, spray of Malathion @2 ml/l (Farmer’s practice) and untreated control. The results revealed that lowest number of ovipositional punctures (1.52 nos. per fruit), lowest fruit infestation (13.64%) could be found out in case of using pheromone trap @28nos/ha as compared to the control that showed significantly higher number of ovipositional punctures (3.79 Nos. per fruit) and highest fruit infestation (47.11). Maximum yield (267.45 q/ha.) and cost benefit ratio (3.05) was observed in the plot treated with pheromone trap @28nos/ha whereas lowest yield (151.3 q/ha.) cost benefit ratio (1.93) was found in the control plots.From this study, it was found that the use of pheromone trap is very economic, highly effective and eco-friendly method for the management of fruit flies in pumpkin.