At the conclusion of the treatments, insects
were removed from the infested avocado by removing
the plug of the fruit and gently flushing
out insects with water onto the prepared artificial
diet. The tissue immediately surrounding the core
of the avocado fruit was also cut from the fruit
and along with the ‘plug’ placed on diet to insure
that all the treated insects would be retrieved.
Diets containing eggs, avocado plugs (cores) and
surrounding tissue were placed over a bed of clean
sand in screened plastic containers (Jang, 1996)
and held in a fly-free room at 24–26°C. After
7–10 days the sand was screened for the presence
of pupae and the diet media checked for the
presence of live insects. Insect survival for each
treatment was determined by the presence of live
larvae and pupae in the diet/tissue. Estimated
treated populations (ETP) and total treated population
(TTP) were calculated according to the
method of Jang (1996).