Abstract
An experimental aimed at the suppress in of the male population of the melon fly, Dacus cucurbitae, was conducted in the central part of Okinawa Island in 1982-1983. For the suppression of the male flies, 0.83g of a lure-toxicant mixture which consisted of 85% cue-lure, 5.0-5.5% naled and 10.0-9.5% solvent was infiltrated into a piece of cotton rope (0.7cm in diameter, 5.0cm long). Aerial application from helicopter and hand application on the ground were adopted for dispensing the cotton ropes containing the lure-toxicant. The application density was 40 per hectare and the applications were repeated monthly four times from August to November, 1982. The relative number of flies caught in the traps in the treated area decreased by about 1/6 compared with the untreated area after the first application and 1/100 after the final one. The effect persisted for 5 months throughout the winter.
