ABSTRACT
The blueberry maggot fly (BMF), Rhagoletis mendax (Curran), is considered the most important pest of commercially grown lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton ‘lowbush’) in Maine. This fly is found infesting blueberry in all production areas in northeastern North America, except Quebec and Newfoundland (Estabrooks, 1995). Maggots in fruit are particularly damaging since the markets for fresh, canned, and frozen fruit have a “near zero to zero” tolerance for infested fruit (Brown and Ismail, 1981). In Maine, approximately 25% of the 60,000 acres of blueberry are treated with an insecticide each year (Yarborough, personal communication). The current IPM program for BMF has been very successful, in Maine and in Canada, by reducing unnecessary insecticide applications and producing a crop with little maggot infestation (Gaul et ah, 1995). Increasing public awareness and concern about the use of pesticides, and the passage and implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 mandates continuing research into strategies that are not only effective, but also socially and environmentally acceptable.
