United States Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service, Daniel K. Inouye US Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, HI, United States of America.
United States Department of Agriculture- Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Waimanalo, HI, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Mar 8;14(3):e0213337. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213337. eCollection 2019.
Male Annihilation Technique (MAT) is a key tool to suppress or eradicate pestiferous tephritid fruit flies for which there exist powerful male lures. In the case of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), a highly invasive and destructive species, current implementations of MAT utilize a combination of the male attractant methyl eugenol (ME) and a toxicant such as spinosad ("SPLAT-MAT-ME") applied at a high density with the goal of attracting and killing an extremely high proportion of males. We conducted direct comparisons of trap captures of marked B. dorsalis males released under three experimental SPLAT-MAT-ME site densities (110, 220, and 440 per km2) near Hilo, Hawaii using both fresh and aged traps to evaluate the effectiveness of varying densities and how weathering of the SPLAT-MAT-ME formulation influenced any density effects observed. Counterintuitively, we observed decreasing effectiveness (percent kill) with increasing application density. We also estimated slightly higher average kill for any given density for weathered grids compared with fresh. Spatial analysis of the recapture patterns of the first trap service per replicate x treatment reveals similar positional effects for all grid densities despite differences in overall percent kill. This study suggests that benefits for control and eradication programs would result from reducing the application density of MAT against B. dorsalis through reduced material use, labor costs, and higher effectiveness. Additional research in areas where MAT programs are currently undertaken would be helpful to corroborate this study's findings.
雄性绝育技术（MAT）是一种抑制或根除有害的实蝇科水果蝇的关键工具，这些水果蝇对雄性诱饵有很强的吸引力。在高度入侵和破坏性的物种 Bactrocera dorsalis（Hendel）的情况下，目前的 MAT 实施使用了雄性引诱剂甲基丁香酚（ME）和一种杀虫剂（如多杀菌素）的组合，以高密度应用，目的是吸引和杀死极高比例的雄性。我们在夏威夷希洛附近的三个实验性 SPLAT-MAT-ME 地点密度（110、220 和 440 个/平方公里）下，对标记的 B. dorsalis 雄性进行了直接比较，使用新鲜和老化的诱捕器来评估不同密度的有效性以及 SPLAT-MAT-ME 配方的老化如何影响观察到的任何密度效应。出乎意料的是，我们观察到随着应用密度的增加，有效性（致死百分比）降低。我们还估计，与新鲜网格相比，老化网格的任何给定密度的平均致死率略高。每个重复 x 处理的第一个诱捕器服务的捕获模式的空间分析表明，尽管总体致死百分比存在差异，但所有网格密度的位置效应相似。这项研究表明，通过减少材料使用、劳动力成本和提高效率，降低 MAT 对 B. dorsalis 的应用密度将有助于控制和根除计划的实施。在目前实施 MAT 计划的地区进行更多的研究将有助于证实本研究的发现。
