Fruit flies and their impact on agriculture in Hawaii.

Abstract

Tephritid fruit flies were among the early invasive insects to the Hawaiian Islands. These agricultural pests have had a major impact on Hawaii’s agriculture, reducing the types, quantities and quality of agricultural products grown on the islands, increasing pesticide use and reducing trade of fruit fly host products. Reduction in production of both sugar cane and pineapple, two non-fruit fly host crops over the last 10–15 years has renewed interest in diversified agriculture in the state and prompted renewed interest in fruit fly control programs statewide. Over the last 90 years, USDA has had a major research role in defining, discovering and implementing technology to detect and control these pests in Hawaii, the U.S. mainland and worldwide. The Hawaii Areawide fruit fly integrated pest management program (HAW-FLYPM), a USDA-ARS funded partnership between ARS, University of Hawaii and Hawaii State Department of Agriculture has recently demonstrated that these pest fruit flies could be controlled using IPM technologies. The success of the program has prompted state and federal agencies to reconsider if Hawaii could further expand their diversified agriculture using such an approach.