Comparative evaluation of spinosad and phloxine B as toxicants in protein baits for suppression of three fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) species.

Spinosad and phloxine B are two more environmentally friendly alternative toxicants to malathion for use in bait sprays for tephritid fruit fly suppression or eradication programs. Laboratory tests were conducted to assess the relative toxicity of these two toxicants for melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett; oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis Hendel; and Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) females. Field tests also were conducted with all three species to compare these toxicants outdoors under higher light and temperature conditions. In laboratory tests, spinosad was effective at much lower concentrations with LC50 values at 5 h of 9.16, 9.03, and 4.30 compared with 250.0, 562.1, and 658.9 for phloxine B (27, 62, and 153 times higher) for these three species, respectively. At 16 ppm spinosad, LT50 values were lower for all three species (significantly lower for C. capitata and B. dorsalis) than 630 ppm phloxine B LT50 values. At 6.3 ppm spinosad, the LT50 value for C. capitata (3.94) was still significantly less than the 630 ppm phloxine B LT50 value (6.33). For all species, the 100 ppm spinosad concentrations gave LT50 values of < 2 h. In comparison among species, C. capitata was significantly more sensitive to spinosad than were B. cucurbitae or B. dorsalis, whereas B. cucurbitae was significantly more sensitive to phloxine B than were C. capitata or B. dorsalis. LC50 values were reduced for both toxicants in outdoor tests, with greater reductions for phloxine B than for spinosad for B. dorsalis and B. cucurbitae. Fly behavior, though, is likely to keep flies from being exposed to maximum possible outdoor light intensities. Comparable levels of population suppression for any of the three species tested here will require a much higher concentration of phloxine B than spinosad in the bait.