Evaluation of synthetic female attractants against Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) in sticky coated spheres and McPhail type traps

In field experiments conducted in a citrus orchard in Chios, Greece, we tested the efficacy of yellow, sticky, plastic, hollow spheres baited with long-lasting dispensers of the food attractants ammonium acetate, 1,4-diaminobutane (putrescine), and trimethylamine (FA-3) to capture adults of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitato (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae). Yellow spheres (7.5 cm in diameter) baited internally or externally with FA-3 were approximately 30 and approximately 12 times more attractive for females and males respectively than unbaited spheres. However, they were approximately 3 times less attractive for both sexes than plastic McPhail type traps baited with the same attractants and provided with water and a drop of a surfactant in their bases (wet traps), and only 1.5 and 2.8 times less attractive for females and males, respectively, than likewise-baited McPhail type traps provided with a killing agent (dimethyl dichlorovinyl phosphate) but not water in their bases (dry trap). Baited spheres were more C. capitata female selective than either wet or dry McPhail traps. The importance of these findings in developing lure and kill devices for the Mediterranean fruit fly is discussed.