Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is the emerging commercial vegetable crop and is very well known for its medicinal properties. The melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett (Diptera: Tephritidae) is prominent insect pest in bitter gourd. The fly females oviposit their egg inside the fruit, after emerging of maggots instantly begins to excavate and feed the fruit. Due to the voracious feeding of maggots, fruit starts to decay and emits bad odour. Oviposition puncture of female flies also damage the fruit quality in market. The yield losses tend to vary between 30 to 100%, depending on the cucurbit species and the season (Rabindranath and Pillai 1986). Melon fruit fly can be managed or suppressed in the farmer fields, by local area and wide area management programmes (Dhillon et al., 2005). Local area management programme, which aims at suppressing, rather than eradicating the melon fruit flies, involves the integration of various management tactics, including, bagging fruits, application of field sanitation measures, installation of protein baits and cue lure traps, growing fruit fly resistant genotypes, augmentation of bio-control agents and cover spray of soft insecticides (Chinajariyawong et al., 2003; 2004; & Dhillon et al., 2005).

Keywords: Bitter gourd, bio-control agents and cover spray, fruit fly.