author(s)
Sandeep Singh

abstract
Fruit flies, Bactrocera spp. are important insect-pests of fruit crops throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Keeping in view their severe damage to Kinnow mandarin fruits, trials were carried out in Punjab, India using PAU fruit flies traps at nine locations in seven districts during 2014 to 2017, with an objective to develop eco-friendly technique to manage the fruit flies. In orchards with 16 traps/acre, fruit fly infested fruits were 14.7 per cent as compared to 57.3 per cent in untreated Kinnow mandarin orchards. Mean maximum fruit flies/16 traps were trapped in Patiala (12668 flies) followed by 12597 flies in Ballowal. A total of 66620 male fruit flies were trapped at 9 different locations in 7 districts. In orchards where 16 traps/acre were fixed, the highest per cent infested fruits were observed in Patiala (41% as compared to untreated orchards in Patiala (90%). In orchards with 16 traps/acre, highest number of marketable fruits were recorded in Ludhiana-1 (450 fruits/tree) followed by Ludhiana-2 (420 fruits/tree). In untreated orchards, highest marketable fruits were recorded in Jalandhar (280 fruits/tree) followed by Patiala (215.4 fruits/tree). Thus, successful management of fruit flies in Kinnow orchards can be achieved by fixing PAU Fruit Fly Traps @ 16 traps/acre in the second week of August.