ABSTRACT
The area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) to suppress fruit flies attacking dragon fruit was implemented in Ham Hiep village (Ham Thuan Bac district- Binh Thuan province, Viet Nam) since October 2016. The two targeted economically important tephritid fruit flies species were Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and Bactrocera correcta (Bezzi). A pilot project consisting of a core zone (581 ha) and a buffer zone (986 ha) was implemented. Suppression strategies included both field sanitation and male annihilation technique (MAT) blocks in both zones. Additionally, in the core zone, protein bait spray was applied. A contiguous area under farmer suppression practice was used as a control. The average number of fruit flies per trap per day (FTD) was 1.8 and 2.2 in the core and buffer zones, respectively, compared to 11.6 in the farmers practice area. Another notable achievement was the involvement of the farmers in the surveillance activities, including trapping inspection, data collection, and sanitation by collecting and removing host fruits in the core and buffer zones. The results clearly indicated the advantage of integrating several methods in an AW-IPM approach. Further integration should include the sterile insect technique (SIT) in the overall suppression strategy.
