Secretariat of the Pacific Community

Plant Protection Service

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Trapping Network In The Pacific Islands

A comprehensive quarantine surveillance network of trapping sites has been established throughout the Pacific region. All Pacific Island Countries and Territories countries and territories have permanent trapping sites. In total, there are 892 sites with Cue-lure traps, 1197 sites with methyl eugenol traps and 27 sites with Trimedlure traps: 

MICRONESIA

Countries

Area km²

Number Cue-lure
sites

Number methyl eugenol sites

Number Trimedlure sites

Host fruit surveys for surveillance
1 Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 471 60 60 0 Yes
2 Guam 541 6 9 5 Yes
3 Palau 488 11 11 0 Yes
4 Federated States of Micronesia 701 36 36 0 Yes
5 Marshall Islands 181 7 7 0 No
6 Kiribati 811 5 5 0 Yes
7 Nauru 21 31 5 0 No

MELANESIA

            
8 Papua New Guinea 462,243 67 67 0 Yes
9 Solomon Islands 28,370 37 37 0 Yes
10 Vanuatu 12,189 38 38 0 Yes
11 New Caledonia 16,192 55 55 0 Yes
12 Fiji Islands 18,333 142 142 33 Yes

POLYNESIA

            
13 Tonga 747 20 20 2 Yes
14 Niue 259 10 10 0 Yes
15 Tuvalu 26 23 23 0 Yes
16 Tokelau 10 9 9 0 Yes
17 Wallis and Futuna 274 6 6 0 No
18 Samoa 2,935 35 35 0 Yes
19 American Samoa 200 8 8 0 No
20 Cook Islands 237 21 21 0 Yes
21 French Polynesia 3,543 291 608 20 Yes
22 Pitcairn 38 16 16 0 Yes

 

Host Fruit Surveys

Host fruit surveys involve collecting samples of commercial / edible and wild fruits and incubating them in the laboratory for two to three weeks to determine whether they are infested with fruit flies. They yield information on the host range of each fruit fly species, the economic importance of each species on different hosts, the host stage of maturity when infestation occurs, comparative level of susceptibility to fly attacks for different host species and different varieties within a host species and diversity and impact of natural parasitoids. They also help to sample fly species not attracted to male lures. Regular sampling of high risk commodities is an essential component of quarantine surveillance. Sampling should include, among others, guava, breadfruit, mango, papaya, avocado, banana, carambola, tropical almond, Tahitian chestnut, citrus, Malay apple and other Syzygium species, capsicum and chilli, tomato, eggplant and cucurbits. Host fruit surveys are regularly carried out in American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Collected fruits are incubated over a layer of moist sawdust for at least two weeks in ventilated containers. In broad host or extensive surveys, fruits are collected and set up in bulk. This method yields a lot of information, but does not indicate the percentage of fruits attacked and number of larvae per individual fruit. This extra damage assessment information is provided by specific collection of fruits or intensive surveys, in which large samples (e.g., 100 fruits) of commercially important fruits are set up and incubated individually in containers for at least two weeks. Alternatively, fruits may be held in bulk for 5 days, examined and those infested are transferred to individual containers and held until flies emerge for a further 7-9 days.

Fruits set up in bulk (Photo: L. Leblanc)

Fruits set up individually for damage assessment (Photo: A. Allwood)



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 Page updated on: 23 October, 2007