Fruit flies are one of the serious pest that attack fruits including mangoes. They cause big loss to a farmer hence reducing supply of mangoes fruits in the market.

Fruit flies proliferate in to the mangoes fruits through the female one. The female implants its eggs in the young fruits of the host plant, which become attractive as they reach maturity.

The larvae or maggots develop in the fresh of untreated fruits by digging tunnels which provide opportunities for secondary infection when the larvae emerge from the fruit. The growth of larvae accelerates maturation of the fruit, which detaches and falls to the ground. The larvae leave the fruit and the pupae develop in the top layer or top few inches of the soil. Upon emergence, the adult soon start looking for the nourishment it needs to reach sexual maturity, couple and lay eggs.

Therefore, if the fly population becomes too large, there is no control method that will be genuinely effective and profitable. The only effective method for interrupting the fly’s development cycle is by removing the dropped fruit every day and preventing adults from implanting eggs in the fruits by using baited traps and preventive insecticide treatment. It is also advisable to control the fly population at the beginning of the season in order to limit fruit flies proliferate.

A farmer should also avoid planting or keeping host plants nearby if their fruit attract the fly, such plants include citrus, guava, papaya and melon. This is because a large number of host plants nearby may result in large population of fruit flies at the start of the mango harvesting season. You should also avoid keeping abandoned, untended orchards or wild trees near the cultivated plot and the plot must be carefully weeded as this will make it very easy to see and pick up fallen fruits.

Then lastly, a mango grower should avoid growing mango varieties with very different growth cycles in the same orchard; since fly populations grow during the production period, the late-maturing varieties are often infested the most.

By: Egwel Gilbert

(With support from CTA Practical guide on how to Control the Mango Fruit Fly)