August, '13] SEVERIN: TRAPPING MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY 347 



A HISTORICAL ACCOUNT ON THE USE OF KEROSENE TO 



TRAP THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY (CERATITIS 



CAPITATA WIED.) 



By Henry H. P. Severin, Ph.D., Honorary Fellow, University of Wisconsin, and 

 Harry C. Severin, M. A., Professor of Entomology, South Dakota State College 

 of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 



The economic entomologist, owing to his vast field is compelled 

 at times to recommend measures for the control of insects that are 

 troublesome in his territory, even though he himself or his staff have 

 not put these measures to a practical test. In not exactly rare instances, 

 recommendations for the control of pests creep into text-books, station 

 bulletins and entomological journals, 

 and these measures even if followed 

 out to the letter will be practically 

 worthless in every locality where they 

 are adopted. As an excellent illustra- 

 tion of a worthless recommendation for 

 the control of a pest is the use of 

 kerosene to trap the Mediterranean 

 fruit fly. 



In this paper we shall first place before 

 the reader the results of our experiments 

 in attempting to control the Mediter- 

 ranean fruit fly by means of kerosene 

 traps and then we shall follow this with 

 a historical account of this method of 

 control as practiced or recommended in 

 various parts of the world. i^ - c. u- . r , ^ • . 



'- rig.o. Selt-ieeamg keros'^ne lountamior 



The attempt on our part to control ttecaptureof the Mediterranean fmit 

 ^ ^ fly m Western Australia. 



the Mediterranean fruit fly by the 



use of kerosene traps wired to fruit trees was a complete failure. 

 In one experiment 10 traps were wired in 10 fruit-bearing citrus 

 trees located in different parts of an orchard and in five weeks, 10,239 

 fruit flies were captured; of this entire number, only 36 were females, 

 the remainder being males. At the end of the five weeks nearly every 

 ripe orange in this orchard had been "stung" by the pest. Trapping 

 the Mediterranean fruit fly with kerosene was carried on for a period 

 of eight months in the Hawaiian Islands in connection with other 

 experiments and the results show that of every 1,000 fruit flies captured 

 only three on an average were females, the remainder being males. 

 After taking Weinland into the field and showing him the methods 



