Target pest

Fruit flies

Description

The McPhail Trap is used around the world to monitor Fruit flies in area-wide monitoring programmes, sterile insect technique (SIT) programmes, orchards and quarantine areas. After Fruit flies mate, the female lays eggs just below the surface of the fruit, which is what we see as the sting. Once the eggs hatch, the Fruit fly larvae, which are small maggots at this stage, feed off the inside of the fruit before exiting and falling to the ground to pupate and then become adult fruit flies. The end result is spoilt, rotten fruit which is wasted.

The McPhail Trap is a plastic trap consisting of three interlocking sections:

• A clear top with a cage, which houses the PheroLure®
• A yellow bottom section, shaped like an inverted funnel
• Four clear plastic rings get inserted into the yellow funnel from the outside

This trap gets baited with different kinds of PheroLures®, namely the E.G.O. PheroLure®, P.F.F. PheroLure® M.E.G.O. PheroLure® and M.E. PheroLure®.

Insects are attracted by the PheroLure® that is in the cage in the transparent top. They enter through the hole of the inverted funnel base. Once inside, the insects are trapped. Trying to fly towards the light and escape through the transparent top, the insects fall exhausted to the bottom of the inverted funnel, where the gas of the Dichlorvos block kills them.