CHITRAL: The fruit fly has been inflicting heavy losses on the pear growers in Lower Chitral for 10 to 15 years.

Shahzad Ayub, an agriculturist attached with extension wing of the agriculture department, told Dawn that Chitral was one of the best pear-producing areas of the province, where indigenous variety of pear named Shoghori was known for its special features, but its produce had dropped due to the bug.

He said collective efforts of farmers were needed to eradicate the fly from the area.

Describing the life cycle of the fly, he said it entered its eggs inside the fruit by its sting when it started ripening and the larvae so developed ate up the pulp making it infected, which released a large number of adult flies when the fruit fell to the ground.

“The flies so released laid eggs in the soil, which metamorphosed into adult flies within two to three weeks that, in turn, infected the fruits of pear in the area and multiplied their population in the summer season,” he said.

Mr Ayub said it was not possible for an individual farmer to kill the flies by spraying insecticides, but concerted efforts could help stamp it out from the area. He said hanging a trapping cell in an orchard containing attractants for male flies and burying the infected fruits under a thick layer of soil soon after their fall from tree could help eradicate the flies.

He said the trapping would nearly exterminate the male flies while the burial of the infected fruit under the thick soil layer would destroy the eggs from a geographical area.

Mr Ayub said in the developed countries, special measures were taken while importing fruits as testing for the fly’s presence in a number of samples was mandatory. “The whole lot of fruit is destroyed when the fly is found there, and the exporting country is blacklisted for it being the source of fruit fly.”

He called for a joint campaign by farmers, the agriculture department and the district administration to exterminate the fruit fly from Lower Chitral.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2024