Therefore, new alternatives are required to improve or revamp the
∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +52 115281 83764537.
E-mail address: grojasverde@gmail.com (G. Rojas-Verde).
current strategies used for the control of Mexican fruit fly populations,
in addition to designing programs to prevent the dispersal
of the fruit fly based on control with integrated pest management.
Plant extracts are potential alternatives to currently used
insecticides, and encouraging results have been obtained in several
studies with some plants that have toxicological effects on flies
in the family Tephritidae (Canale et al., 2013; Benelli et al., 2012).
Plant essential oils are well known to have pharmacological properties,
including bactericidal, fungicidal, and antioxidant activities
(Kalemba and Kunicka, 2003), and the secondary plant metabolites
of these oils can also act as defense mechanisms against insect
herbivores.