Hot water-ethylene dibromide fumigation-refrigeration treatment for mangoes infested by oriental and Mediterranean fruit flies.
Seo S. T., Chambers D. L., Akamine E. K., Komura M., Lee C. Y. L.
Author Affiliation: Entomology Research Division, ARS, USDA, Honolulu, Hawaii 96804.
Journal of Economic Entomology 65 : 1372-1374
Abstract : In laboratory tests in Hawaii in 1971, mangoes were freed from infestation by Dacus dorsalis Hend. and Ceratitis capitata (Wied.) by sequentially heating the fruits in water at 46.3 deg C for 20 min, fumigating them with ethylene dibromide at 8 or 12 g/m3 in wooden field boxes (41 X 56 X 16 cm) at 21.1 deg C for 2 h, and refrigerating them at 7.6 deg C for 4 days. The rate of infestation of the test fruits was 93-1060 larvae/kg, about 3-353 times that of fruit obtained from field collections. When the fumigation rate was 8 g/m3, only one adult resulted from an estimated population of 207 019 eggs and larvae of the two Tephritids, while, when the rate was 12 g/m3, no adults resulted from an estimated population of 215 012 eggs and larvae. The residues of ethylene dibromide in the peel and pulp of mangoes (variety Haden) fumigated at 8, 12 and 16 g/m3 and kept at 23.3-30.6 deg C (the ambient temperature) for 1 or 3 days after refrigeration at 7.6 deg C ranged from 2.6 to 3.4 p.p.m. after 1 day and from 0.14 to 0.4 p.p.m. after 3 days; the residues of inorganic bromide ranged from 1 to 2.3 p.p.m. Mangoes of the varieties Pairi and Haden were not injured by any single treatment or by a combination of the three treatments.