Pesticide use to keep exotic fruit flies from becoming established has been cut as much as 8,000-fold by US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) work toward more effective control measures.

Because fruit flies are such a big risk to California's economy, large amounts of pesticides previously were used there when chemicals were the only tool for eradication.

Techniques such as improved ways of producing sterile male fruit flies for release to short-circuit the breeding cycle, new biocontrols such as augmentative releases of parasitic wasps, and better ways to manage crops to minimize fruit fly infestation have all come from research by the ARS US Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC) in Hilo, Hawaii, and the ARS Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, Texas.

In particular, more effective and more species-specific lures and baits have made possible the deep reductions in insecticide use in states such as California and Florida.

In the 1930s, California used lead arsenate sprays at rates as high as two pounds of active ingredient (AI) per tree and still did not succeed in completely eradicating walnut husk fruit fly infestations. That is according to Robert V. Dowell, program supervisor of the Integrated Pest Control Branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

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