Managing the Pepper Maggot (Diptera: Tephritidae) Using Perimeter Trap Cropping

Abstract

A perimeter trap crop barrier of hot cherry peppers, border-row insecticide applications, and a combination of the two management strategies were evaluated to see if they could protect a centrally located main crop of bell peppers from oviposition and infestation by the pepper maggot, Zonosemata electa (Say). In large plots, the main cash crop of bell peppers was protected from the majority of the oviposition and infestation by all three barriers. The combination sprayed/trap crop barrier provided the best protection against both oviposition and infestation and resulted in over 98% pest-free fruit at harvest. Maggots infested only 1.7% of the main crop fruit when protected by a sprayed or unsprayed trap crop barrier, compared with 15.4% in control plots. The perimeter sprayed/trap crop strategy was employed in three commercial fields in 2000 and 2001. The combination barrier resulted in superior insect control and reduced insecticide use at all commercial locations, compared with the same farms' past history or to farms using conventional and integrated pest management (IPM) methods. Economic analysis showed that the technique is more cost effective and profitable than relying on whole-field insecticide applications to control the pepper maggot. Farmer users were surveyed and found the perimeter trap crop technique simple to use, with many hard-to-measure benefits associated with worker protection issues, marketing, personnel/management relations, pest control and the environment. Use of the perimeter trap crop technique as part of an IPM or organic program can help improve crop quality and overall farm profitability, while reducing pesticide use and the possibility of secondary pest outbreaks.

Designing an effective trap cropping strategy: the effects of attraction, retention and plant spatial distribution

“…We also did not allow for insects migrating into a field with a border trap crop (e.g. Boucher et al 2003) because the goal of a border crop is to prevent insects from entering the cash crop, making retention even more important in this scenario. Lastly, the importance of retention would also increase if the attractiveness of the trap crop declined as damage increased over time.…”

Status of <I>Rhagoletis</I> (Diptera: Tephritidae) Pests in the NAPPO Countries

“…All Zonosemata species feed on wild plants of the Solanaceae, or at least have been associated as adults with Solanaceous plants (Bush 1965;Hernández-Ortiz 1989;Norrbom 1990Norrbom , 2002. Pepper maggot, Z. electa, native to the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, has been a pest of commercial bell peppers, Capsicum annuum L., and eggplant, Solanum melongena L., in the northeastern United States and Ontario for many years (Peterson 1923, Foott 1963, Boucher et al 2003. However, it has not been recorded in Mé xico.…”

“…Each of these species is native to North America (Bush 1966) and occurs in two or three of the NAPPO countries. In addition, pepper maggot, Zonosemata electa (Say), closely related to Rhagoletis (Smith and Bush 2000), is economically important in the United States (Peterson 1923, Boucher et al 2003. As might be expected, given the large areas of these countries, distributions of the different ßy species vary, with some regions being suitable and others being unsuitable for the ßies.…”

Resting sites, edge effects and dispersion of a polyphagous Bactrocera fruit fly within crops of different architecture

“…Crop edges are of specific importance for fruit flies because it is generally regarded that flies reinvade the crop each cropping cycle (Fletcher 1974) and because flies may also routinely move back and forwards between the crop and surrounding vegetation (Aluja and Rull 2009). Within the Tephritidae, the issues of edges and edge management have been investigated across different pest genera, including Ceratitis (Cohen and Yuval 2000), Anastrepha (Kovaleski et al 1999), Zonosemata (Boucher et al 2001(Boucher et al , 2003 and Toxotrypana (Aluja et al 1997).…”