BIO-EFFICACY OF POISON BAITS AGAINST MELON FRUIT FLY, BACTROCERA CUCURBITAE (COQUILLETT) IN THE OPEN CUCUMBER FIELDChaudhary K.V., Patel S.R. and Akshay KumarAbstract Present research work was carried out to access the efficacy of different poison food baits against melon fruit flies infesting cucumber under field conditions. In the experiment, different bait mixtures comprised of fruit pulps mixed with protein hydrolysate (PH) and malathion 50 EC were assessed for their attractive potential against B.cucurbitae under field conditions. Out of all baits, bait treatment with a mixture of PH 2.5% (V/V) + pumpkin 2.5% (W/V) + malathion 50 EC (0.05%) found significantly superior as it recorded the highest mean number of fruit flies (57.38 fruit flies/trap/eight weeks). Thus, this bait treatment could be recommended for mass trapping of adult male and female melon flies. |