Effect of Different Management Strategies on Melon Fruit Fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), Infestation in Cucurbit Vegetables

Abstract

| Melon fruit fly, Bacterocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) is a serious pest of many vegetables, especially cucurbits. To manage this notorious pest, the experiments were designed to evaluate the most effective method of pest control. The field experiments in bottle gourd, sponge gourd, Indian squash and bitter gourd were designed in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) having 16 treatments with 5 replications each. Basically, there were five treatments; T1= Untreated control, T2 = Spinosad (Tracer), T3= Cue-lure, T4= Protein hydrolysate, T5 = Trybliographa daci. Furthermore, combinations of these treatments were designed to find out the most effective combination. The results revealed that among the solo treatments, the plots sprayed with chemical (T2 = Tracer) had least number of infested fruits (29.75±2.69) while in combine treatments, the most effective treatment was T16 (Tracer + Protein hydrolysate + cuelure + T. daci) with 2.00±0.41 infested fruits. Moreover, the highest punctures fruit-1 were recorded in control plot (23.25±2.21) cultivated with Bottle gourd whereas, the least punctures were found in bitter ground (1.05±0.38) cultivated plot. On the basis of results obtained from the current study, it can be concluded that the combination of different treatments can significantly reduce the infestation caused by melon fruit fly. Moreover, the researchers and government organizations should provide the biological agents and convince the farmers to use IPM methods for healthy vegetable with high yield.