The Hawaii Fruit Fly Areawide Pest Management Programme

Abstract

Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are among the most economically important pests attacking soft fruits worldwide (White and Elson-Harris, 1992). Four invasive species Mediterranean fruit fly or medfly (Ceratitis capitata), melon fly (Bactrocera cucurbitae), oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) and the so-called Malaysian fruit fly or solanaceous fruit fly (Bactrocera latifrons) - have been devastating to Hawaiian agriculture for over 100 years by infesting more than 400 different host plants. These fruit flies: • Jeopardize development of a diversified tropical fruit and vegetable industry. • Require that commercial fruits undergo quarantine treatment prior to export. • Provide a breeding reservoir for their introduction into other parts of the world due to unprecedented travel and trade between countries. Hawaii is not the only state in the USA troubled by fruit flies. Every year exotic fruit flies are accidentally introduced from various parts of the world into California and Florida. One species, the olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae), introduced into California in 1998, has become permanently established and has caused serious economic losses to olive growers (Yokoyama and Miller, 2004). Due to continuous introductions, current annual costs incurred in excluding medfly from California and Florida total over US$15 million (http://www.cdfa.ca.gov). If the medfly became permanently established in California, projected losses would exceed US$1 billion per year due to lost revenues, export treatment costs, trade and crop damage (Faust, 2004)