CONTROL OF CARIBBEAN FRUIT-FLY (DIPTERA, TEPHRITIDAE) IN NAVEL ORANGEBY FORCED HOT AIR

A single-stage, hot-air quarantine treatment was used to kill Caribbea n fruit By Anastrepha suspensa (Loew), mature 3rd instars in Florida-g rown 'Golden' navel orange, Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck Treating infes ted navel orange with 48 +/- 0.3 degrees C forced air for 55.9 +/- 0.3 , 73.7 +/- 1.3, and 119.4 +/- 0.7 min, to reach final center pulp temp eratures of 36-37, 40-41, and 44-45 degrees C, respectively, when init ial center pulp temperatures were 22.3 +/- 0.2, 21.2 +/- 0.2, and 20.5 +/- 0.3 degrees C, respectively, reduced the number of surviving pupa ria that developed from treated larvae. The exposure time needed to re ach Q99.9968% mortality was 108.6 min (lower and upper fiducial limits were 88.4 and 200.3 min, respectively) when the final mean center pul p temperature was greater than or equal to 44 degrees C. A large-scale confirmatory test resulted in no survivors when 113,676 Caribbean fru it fly larvae in 1,200 manually infested navel oranges were heated wit h 48 +/- 0.3 degrees C forced air at an average 0.75 m(3)/s air flow r ate until the center pulp temperatures were greater than or equal to 4 4 degrees C, which required 100.2 +/- 3.0 min of heating when initial center pulp temperatures were 23.2 +/- 0.4 degrees C. Relative humidit y ranged from 63.5% at the start of the test to 77.3% when the test wa s finished. After treatment at 48 +/- 0.3 degrees C for 105 min and 1 mo of storage at 5 degrees C, there was no significant difference in q uality characteristics between heated and unheated navel oranges.