Effect of Sticky Trap Color and Height on the Capture of Adult Oriental Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae) on Chili Pepper

摘要

Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, (Hendel) (Diptera:udTephritidae) is a destructive pest to many major crops, including chiliudpepper (Capsicum frutescens L). The insect can cause yield loss up toud100% in the absence of any control measures. One control tactic commonlyudused by pepper growers to control the fruit fly is sticky trap to capture theudadults. The purpose of the current study was to elucidate the effect of trapudcolor and height on the fly capture. The results showed that yellow trap wasudconsistently the most attractive trap amongst the other trap colors testedudwith an overall average of 62.6 adults per trap during the study. The secondudmost attractive traps were white and green traps with overall averages ofud45.2 and 40 adults per trap, respectively. The attractiveness levels of the redudand blue traps were comparable each other with overall averages of 29.4udand 25.4 adults per trap, respectively. The least attractive trap was blackudtrap with an overall average of 17.1 adults per trap, which was significantlyudlower than the other trap colors. In addition, traps set up at 25 and 50 cmudabove the ground captured significantly more adults (187.8 and 171.9 perudtrap, respectively) compared to those set up at 75 and 100 cm above theudground (60.8 and 37.1 per trap, respectively). When the combination of theudcolor and height of the traps were analyzed, the yellow, white and greenudtraps set up at 25 and 50 cm above the ground caught the highest numbersudof adult fruit flies and they were not significantly different each other.udThus, these combinations should be recommended to the pepper growers toudcontrol the insect in their plantations.