Abstract

Sixteen species of fruitflies (Dacus Spp.) are known to cause heavy damage to fruits and vegetables in India and other countries. The melon fruitfly, Dacus cucurbitae often causes appreciable injury to the snakegourd fruits. The maggots of these flies bore into the ripening fruits and the fruits begin to rot and drop, thereby reducing the yield and the quality of the fruits. Ayyar (1940) recommended preventive control measures such as prompt removal and destruction of damaged fruits and trapping the adult flies with poisoned syrups to prevent egg-laying. Narayan and Batra (1960) advocated spraying of diesel oil emulsion when the flies congregate in large numbers during cooler part of the day. Srinivasan and Narayanaswamy (1962) reported that spraying parathion 0.05% or malathion 0.1% four times at 10 days interval was very effective in controlling the fruitflies on ashgourd and pumpkin and application of parathion 0 02% or endrin 0.02% four times at an interval of 10 days commencing from the time of flowering gave very good control and higher yield against melon fruit flies. Pali (1963) found that parathion 0.04% W. P. and diazinon 0.02% proved very effective in reducing the incidence of melon fruitflies.

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