Maggots inside bitter gourd fruit from fruit fly, low pesticide management with traps and fruit bagging.
How to prevent fruit fly damage in bitter gourd (karela) using traps and bagging?
SSantosh Kumar7mo ago · 274 views
3 Answers
🌾Farmer.in Krishi TeamExpert ✓7mo ago
Fruit fly is the main reason bitter gourd, ridge gourd and other cucurbit fruits rot with maggots inside and drop early. The most effective low chemical approach is cuelure pheromone traps to catch males, methyl eugenol traps where applicable, plus collecting and destroying all fallen and infested fruit so the next generation does not build up. Bagging young fruits with newspaper or polythene sleeves protects them physically and works well on trellised vines. Poison bait splashes of protein bait with insecticide on spots, not full cover spray, also reduce flies. Confirm trap type, bait recipe and any spray with your KVK, and never dump infested fruit at the field edge.
MManoj Sah7mo ago
Bagging karela fruits is slow work but it gave me almost clean fruit. I combine it with cuelure traps and now lose far fewer fruits to maggots.
BBirendra Ram7mo ago
A warning that cost me once: never throw infested fallen fruit at the field edge. The flies just keep breeding there, now I collect and bury or destroy them daily and the trap catch dropped.