A fruit fly control guarantees you good yields

Most farmers have almost given up on farming because of the challenges they have faced and barely found any solutions to them.

One of these includes fruit flies that eat up their fruits and infect them before they mature hence giving poor yields.

Abudul Sengendo a farmer says for three years, he has been growing mangoes but he never got good yields because of fruit flies.

"They lay eggs on the fruits and when they mature into larva which eat up the fruit and even penetrate it e," says Ssengendo.

"By the time you harvest, the fruit is full of maggots and it cannot be bought by any one," says Sengendo.

According to Jimmy Wesiga, a researcher on fruit flies says fruit flies are a big problem to farmers that many have given up and opted to do other things.

He says fruit flies can spoil 70% of fruits on an acre in two weeks leaving the farmer with less or nothing at all which is really discouraging.

He notes that the solution to this problem is by using a fruit fly control which is very effective if used well.

How the fruit fly was made

"Research that was conducted by students of Makerere University in 2011, found out that when time for female flies to mate with males comes, they pass out a liquid called pheromone as an alert message to the males that it's time for mating," says Wesige.

"The males smell this liquid and that way; they look for the females and mate. Mating is done on top of the fruits, "he explains.

"So after mating, the females lay eggs on the fruits pulp that mature in to larva before they grow into flies. These feed on the fruit pulp and also penetrate inside the fruit and damage it," he explains.

He said that researchers looked for pheromone and went ahead and mix it with a chemical called dichlorvous that kills the flies

However he says mixing of the organophosphate called the dichlorovos is done with help of a gauze bandage for 24 hours. After this it's packaged and sold out to farmers.

How it works

Lembusi Mubiru, a farmer who has used the fruit fly controls says when the males smell the pheromone chemical, they imagine it's their female counter part so they are attracted and that way they get trapped and die.

"They can be hanged on a tree with a container or jerry can to act as a trap. When they fall inside, they never come out but rather die on spot, "he says.

This hinders continued reproduction of these insects because females lay eggs but never hatch because they were not fertilized by the.

After some time, the females go ahead because they realize they are in a wrong place without their male counter parts.

He says that for an acre, a farmer can put 15 fruit fly controls, spaced at 30 meters apart and he will be sure of a good yield. He adds that they are sold at between sh7000-20000 depending on the size.

Precautions

Wesiga says that it's important that for a farmer to wear protective gear like gloves, nose Masks before they touch fruit fly controls.

However, he says that chemical is not harmful to the environment as it only attracts and kills fruit flies.

He advises parents to keep it out of reach of children because it's not good for human consumption.