Effect of Chemosterilants Against the Oriental Fruit Fly, Melon Fly, and Mediterranean Fruit Fly

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Abstract
In tests conducted in Hawaii from 1959 to 1964 both sexes of one or more of 3 species of tephritid flies were sterilized without toxic effects by treating food and water with tcpa, metepa, apholate, or tretamine, applying these materials topically to pupae or adults, or exposing adults to deposits of the chemosterilants. Methotrexate, aminopterin, colchicine, and 5-fluorouracil treatments sterilized females only. Tepa, apholate, and tretamine sterilized as effectively and efficiently as ionizing radiation. Tepa showed promise for field applications in combination with attractive protein hydrolyzates. In general, males were sterilized at lower concentrations than females; the melon fly, Dacus cucurbitae Coquillett, was the most susceptible; the oriental fruit fly, D. dorsalis Hendel, intermediate; and the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), the least susceptible to test materials. Treatments were most effective against newly emerged flies, but deposition of hatchable eggs in old gravid fertile females was inhibited within 24–48 hr after treatment.

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