Western cherry fruit flies are a big problem for fruit growers. One remedy against their effect may be a slippery organic coating that prevents the female western cherry fruit fly (Rhagoletis indifferens) from jabbing the fruit with her ovipositor, according to a new research article published in May in Environmental Entomology.
Once the female lands on the fruit, she needs to lodge firmly with her front two legs and then tip her abdomen upward so she can drive the ovipositor straight down into the fruit, but the coating causes her hind legs to slide off, explains horticultural scientist Clive Kaiser, Ph.D., associate professor of agricultural sciences at Lincoln University in New Zealand and current courtesy faculty of agriculture at Oregon State University.
Click here to read about the scientific aspects of the coating.
Source: entomologytoday.org