The peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) is one of the most harmful tephritid insects that infest many commercial fruits causing a significant economic damage. The objective of this study was to evaluate the field performance of wooden blocks of fiber plant comparing cotton wicks as an alternative dispenser of methyl eugenol either in internally plastic bottles or directly exposed to weather factors as in sticky-double sheet boards. Two experimental trails were carried out extending for 8 weeks in two locations of Fayoum orchards.
During the 8 weeks of experimentation, the grand weekly means of attracted males of B. zonata for the blocks, plastic bottle traps and the sticky-double sheets were 189.96, 43.81 and 62.77 males / week, respectively with a weekly relative attractancy means of 60.49, 21.24 and 18.27%, respectively of the total captured males. On the 2nd trail the residues and lost amounts of methyl eugenol and Sumithion mixture for the fiber blocks and cotton wicks were assessed. After 4 weeks of field exposure, the residues mean % of mixture of fiber blocks, cotton wicks that were internally in the plastic traps and the cotton wick that directly exposed fixing in the sticky-double sheets were 77.19, 71.87 and 53.29%, respectively, while after eight weeks of exposure, the residues percentages were 49.80, 6.72, 2.36%, respectively.
The results ensured the continuously applications of plant fiber blocks as an element of peach fruit fly integrated control according to its high performance for males attracting, long time durational of lure residence and the easily application of field procedures.