Spinosad bait for the Caribbean fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae)

The establishment of the Caribbean fruit fly, Anastrepha suspensa (Loew), in Florida resulted in the need for quarantine treatments of citrus for shipment to certain states and countries. The state of Florida has established a fly-free protocol that permits shipment from areas in compliance without further treatment. One option of the protocol calls for the use of a toxic bait cover spray; however, sprays containing malathion are required to contain 190,000 ppm active ingredient. Thus, alternative pesticides are needed because of environmental, human health, and property damage concerns with malathion. Spinosad, an extract of a bacterial broth, is a contact and stomach poison for target pests. It was combined with a sugar-yeast hydrolysate mixture and tested as a bait spray on colony-reared adult flies in a no-choice test. The EC,, values were estimated to be 9.4 and 5.8 ppm for sexually mature females and males, respectively. These relatively low values indicate that spinosad is an excellent candidate for field testing.