Attractiveness of corn steep liquor plus borax to fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) under field cages

Abstract

Several species of fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are captured by traps baited with liquid protein food attractants. Milhocina(r) is a hydrolysate of corn with acidic pH. Addition of borax can increase the pH of the solution and improve the attractive performance for adult tephritids. The objective of this work was to evaluate the attractiveness under several times of exposure of (Milhocina(r)) at 5% (v/v) by adding borax at 4, 7 and 10% in comparison with the standard commercial protein at 3% (v/v) (BioAnastrepha). Twenty pairs of 2 to 3 years old of Ceratitis capitata and 20 pairs of 1 to 3 years old of Anastrepha fraterculus were released inside of field cage (8.0 m3) in the beginning of each exposure period (0 - 2, 2 - 4, 4 - 7 e 7 - 10 days). In the upper surface of each field cage, a transparent plastic McPhail trap was kept with 400 mL of attractive. After each exposure time, the adults captured were counted and sexed. Greater amounts of C. capitataadults were captured in attractive standard Bio Anastrepha. This product captured more females and males of A. fraterculus than other attractants. There were higher catches of male and female + male C. capitata than A. fraterculus in treatments with Milhocina(r). More captures of females tested tephritids catches were obtained by Milhocina(r) + 4% borax and Bio Anastrepha up to 7 days of exposure of the attractants. In general, during the period of 2 - 4 days of exposure, there was an increase in the attractiveness of protein solutions for females and males of C. capitata and A. fraterculus.