Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) developed a PAU Fruit Fly Trap — an eco-friendly technology for the management of fruit flies in kinnow, guava, mango, pear, peach, and plum. Different types of fruits too were developed by the team, and some of them invented seedless fruits of mixed breed.
Entomologist Dr Navtej Bains (HOD) said: “These fruits had a different taste than fruits sold in the market, as these are cost-effective, sweet and ripe, and also had a seedless quality with different sizes. The traps should be kept around each fruit crop till the fruit harvesting is over, and they should be fastened to trees using metallic wires, at a height of 1-1.5 metres, depending on the height of the fruit tree, and at a place receiving no direct sunlight. The traps have to be recharged after 30 days if required, when the catch is reduced.”
Talking to TOI, entomologist and technical coordinator of the bee-keeping training course, Dr Sandeep said: “Precautions for using the PAU Fruit Fly Trap are important, as they are to be used with much care. We had also prepared honey with a honey processing machine through a different process.”
New varieties of guava too were launched by Dr Bains (Punjab Safeda and Punjab Kiran), besides new varieties of mandarin, guavas, sweet orange, and kinnow. He mentioned the time for fixing traps in orchards. It is the second week of April for plum, the first week of May for peach, the third week of May for mango, the first week of June for pear, the first week of July for guava, and the second week of August for kinnow.
Source: Times of India