Ecological control of fruit-sucking moth pests using a mixture of citrus and bananas

The experiment took citrus and bananas from two citrus orchards in Osaka Village, Quqiao Township, and Heshan Village as observation test materials. The citrus of the orange orchard in Osaka Village is wenzhou mandarin orange planted in 2001, the banana system of nearly 100 mu inside and outside the garden was colonized from 2003 to 2008, and the citrus system of the village orangery was colonized in 2002 (no bananas were planted near the orangery). From mid-August to early October 2008, the nocturnal moth was observed and killed in the Osaka Orangery from 8 to 10 o'clock on sweltering nights. Since August 2001, systematic observations have been carried out every five days in the orange orchards of Osaka and Shanxiang.

1 Effect of banana flowers lure fruit-sucking moths In 2005, in the citrus orchard of Osaka Village, under the condition of no bananas, 100 to 300 fruit-sucking moths could be caught on orange trees every night from August to October, and the fruit damage rate reached 18%-22%. In 1985, the bananas planted near the orange orchards bloomed from August to October, and it was found that the fruit-sucking moth was lured to the banana flowers to absorb honey juice, while the citrus fruit was rarely harmed by the nocturnal moth, and the phenomenon of fruit-sucking nocturnal moths falling fruit was also very rare. From August to October 2006, on the banana flowers in and around the Osaka orange and banana orchards, there were fruit-sucking nocturnal moths sucking honey juice at each survey, and 20 spikes of banana flowers found an average of 14 nocturnal moths per time, and the highest one reached 51 at a time; in the same period, only one fruit-sucking moth was observed on the orange tree as a pest of fruit, which fully demonstrated that the attraction of banana flowers to nocturnal moths was strong.

At the same time, in the unplanted banana-growing Shanxiang orange orchard, an average of 39 fruit-sucking moths were found each time, mainly in 4 early-maturing Wenzhou mandarin trees. As a result of the damage, 1377 fruits were dropped (folded into 115 kg). Nocturnal moths only affect 0.2% of the villages of Osaka, and 1.8% of the villages of Good Villages.

2 Fruit-sucking nocturnal moths feed on banana flowers and the types and quantities of fruit-sucking moths are lured to banana blossoms to eat nectar mostly at night, but rarely during the day. The hot and sweltering weather occurs more often, and the weather is cold or windy and rainy, and the number is more from 8 to 10 o'clock at night, and the number is small after 11 o'clock. The fruit-sucking moth only sucks honey juice on the flower buds of the female and neutral flowers of bananas, and individually sucks juice on the flower buds; it does not harm the banana fruit and has no adverse effect on the growth of banana fruit. Judging from the types of fruit-sucking nocturnal moths collected, the types of nocturnal moths that are sucked on banana flowers are the same as those of citrus fruits, reaching more than 20 species, with the mouth pot nocturnal moth being the most, accounting for about 40%, the toribilized pot nocturnal moth, the pot nocturnal moth and the flat-billed nocturnal moth accounting for about 20%, the pomelo nocturnal moth accounting for 13.5%, and other species accounting for about 26.5%.

3 Planting bananas inside and outside orange orchards is conducive to the reproduction of frogs There are fewer banana diseases and insects, less pesticides are used, banana plants are tall, leaves are large, the garden is cool and wet, and there is generally water accumulation in drainage ditches. Such standing conditions coincide with the living environment required by frogs, which is conducive to the activity, feeding and reproduction of frogs. The zephyll frog is the most abundant and can prey on small moths that move lower from the ground in banana orchards. The second is the rain frog, which generally lurks on the banana leaves and banana stems near the banana flower at night, and some lurk on the banana flower spikes, which can prey on small and medium-sized fruit-sucking moths and other moths under 2 cm on the banana flower. This forms a complete closed food chain, that is, the banana garden ecology is conducive to the survival of fruit-sucking nocturnal moth larvae and frogs, banana flowers induce fruit-sucking nocturnal moths to absorb nectar, and frogs prey on the honey-sucking nocturnal moths on banana flowers, so as to achieve the purpose of controlling fruit-sucking nocturnal moths as harmful citrus fruits.