Effectiveness of Weaver ants (Oecophylla longinoda), bait application (GF-120) and neem oil (Azachdirachta indica) combination in the control of fruit flies in mango orchards in Northern Côte d'Ivoire
A Coulibaly, MY Minhibo, S Soro, OR N Dépo, AN Goran, NF Hala, M Barnabas and H Djidji
Mango is Côte d'Ivoire's third most important export fruit after bananas and pineapples with a national production of 100,000 tons/year. Unfortunately, mango production, although flourishing in recent years, still faces various constraints, of which fruit flies are the most damaging. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of Weaver ants (Oecophylla longinoda), biopesticide (Neem Oil) and bait food (GF-120) combination in the control of fruit flies in mango orchards. In each orchard, a 5 hectare plot was delimited into four sub-plots each 20 m apart with a treatment: Ants + Neem Oil, Ants + GF-120, Ants alone and a plot without ants. The treatments were repeated in three different locations (Korhogo, Ferké and Ouangolo). In each treatment, a sample of 100 mangoes was collected from ten trees. The harvested mangoes were weighed and incubated in the laboratory. Two weeks later, the mangoes were washed and the number of pupae was determined for each treatment. In all sites, the combination Ants + Nem protected mango orchards at 98.6%, followed by the combination Ants + GF-120 which is 98.43% and ants alone with a protection rate of 90.89%. The combination of control including Weaver ants effectively protects mango orchards than Weaver ants alone.
A Coulibaly, MY Minhibo, S Soro, OR N Dépo, AN Goran, NF Hala, M Barnabas, H Djidji. Effectiveness of Weaver ants (Oecophylla longinoda), bait application (GF-120) and neem oil (Azachdirachta indica) combination in the control of fruit flies in mango orchards in Northern Côte d'Ivoire. J Entomol Zool Stud 2019;7(6):01-07.