The Role of Pesticides in Fruit Fly Management, Balancing Efficacy and Environmental Concerns

Abstract

Fruit fly infestation is a major worldwide threat to food security by impacting fruit and vegetable production, especially in tropical and subtropical areas, tremendously. The pest infest more than 400 crop species by ovipositing within fruits and causing severe economic and aesthetic losses between 40–80%, depending on the species, season, and locality. Nations have placed strict quarantine requirements to avoid the danger of invasive species, with the European Union having been reported to reject entire shipments over a single infested fruit. Various control methods have been applied, but conventional pesticides like organophosphates, pyrethroids, and neonicotinoids, while at first effective, are currently encountering setbacks through resistance development and negative environmental effects. Therefore, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has grown up as a more environmentally friendly approach that integrates chemical, biological, and cultural controls. Spinosad, abamectin, and microbial biopesticides are potential tools that can be used to minimize infestations while keeping damage to non-target organisms to a minimum. Emerging strategies such as RNA interference (RNAi) provide species-specific control with little ecological footprint, yet worry on non-target effects and regulatory environments abounds. Emerging challenges encompass climate change-induced pest outbreaks, gaps in resistance monitoring, and socio-economic inequalities to access safer technologies. Overcoming these demands strong policy support, farmer training, fair access to innovations, and inter-institutional collaboration among academia, industry, and governments. Consumer purchasing of residue-free fruit and changing Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) policies are redefining pesticide application and trade flows. Generally, innovations in pest control strategies that are effective, ecologically sound, and socially just are essential to ensuring global food systems in light of new pressures and environmental uncertainties.