Area-wide management of fruit flies in Australia

Abstract

Parts of Australia have endemic populations of pest species of fruit flies while in other parts exotic species have become established. There are also some areas that are free from pest fruit flies and are maintained free from fruit flies using area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) principles. In addition to these, Australian horticultural production, as a whole, is at risk from incursions of other pest fruit fly species. AW-IPM of fruit flies has been practised in Australia for many years when protecting areas, which have only marginal opportunities for fruit fly establishment. In recent years research on AWIPM in other areas has commenced with the desired outcome being to set up systems assuring fruit fly-sensitive trading partners' freedom from fruit fly infestations in imported produce. The success of AW-IPM programmes is highly dependent on monitoring for fruit flies, appropriate and quick response to incursions and an active participation by all growers and the rest of the community in the area under the AW-IPM programme. This paper describes AW-IPM tools currently in use in Australia at national, regional and smaller area levels. Fruit fly mitigation methods such as trapping, trap arrays, border inspections, community awareness programmes as well as the male annihilation technique (MAT), the sterile insect technique (SIT), baiting and postharvest treatments are discussed.