The Turks and Caicos Islands Government, Plant Health Services Unit commenced its Fruit Fly Surveillance Programme in Grand Turk on January 29, 2013. The programme has been initiated to among other things protect the country’s domestic crop production and to provide an early warning system for potential pest infestation.
The programme was first launched in October 2012 on the North Caicos and after several weeks of monitoring, no fruit flies for other harmful pests have been found. The absence of the flies is always a positive for the program and by extension, the country.
Due to increased pest threat levels in the Caribbean Region, the Department of Agriculture with guidance from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has recognised the need for a coordinated approach to the management of fruit flies across all islands to protect TCI’s agriculture and other plant resources.
Fruit Flies are known to attack a wide range of fruit and vegetables mangoes, papaya, orange, guava, tomatoes worldwide. They have the potential to negatively impact TCI’s ability to trade in horticultural, fruit and vegetable produce both domestic and international markets.
Fruit fly traps are currently being placed across North Caicos and Grand Turk respectively, to trap for the purpose of identifying fruit flies and other non-target pests that may be present. The Fruit Fly Surveillance Programme will help the TCI to protect economically important crops and plants; establish pest free areas; implement pest management systems on all islands and assist in efforts to re-evaluate and bolster our bio-security measures to prevent harmful invasion of such pests.
Those residents who see the traps, are being asked NOT to interfere with them. Those used so far are McPhail – they come with a Yellow base and clear top; and the Jackson trap which is made of hard cardboard type material and constructed into a triangular shape.
The Department of Agriculture is also urging the public to support the programme by contacting the department if they see maggots on fruits or adult flies on fresh produce. Please call or write to the Department of Agriculture at planthealthservicestci@gmail.com or 649-946-5801 to report your sightings.
