California Olive Oil News^©
A Publication of The Olive Oil Source  

Volume 6 Issue 3

March  2003

Economy Olive fly Trap

Many have been asking about olive fly control methods. It is a source of irritation to many olive growers that they must compete with Mediterranean growers who routinely control the olive fly with organophosphate insecticides, yet we have a hard time getting much less toxic control methods approved in this country. Currently Spinosad, an actinomycete bacteria derived toxin is used for fly control in California. Mixed with a new fruit fly bait developed by Dow AgroSciences it is available under the trade name GF-120 under a section 18 emergency use permit and is typically sprayed on a small section of the tree weekly from pit hardening through harvest.

The Olive Fly Attract and Kill (A&K) trap which uses a spiroketal attractant and lambda cyhalothrin, a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide, has been approved under section 18. For details go to the California department of Pesticide regulation. The traps may be moved to a section 3 by the end of 2003.

Effective Attractants are key to controlling the olive fly. Attractants can summon the fly from hundreds of feet away to a sticky trap or poisen bait. Racemic 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undecane, olean, 5, is the female produced sex pheromone of the olive fly, Bactrocera (Dacus) oleae. It is in a class of chemicals called spiroacetals and is the ingredient in the commercial product Spiroketal. Although not commonly used in this manner, at concentrations higher than those produced by olive fruit fly females the phermone itself has insecticidal and ovicidal activity. 1,5,7-trioxaspiro[5.5]undecane, an analog of the major pheromone component, has been synthesized and tested, and under optimal conditions it was as attractive as the natural compound, but it did not last as long in traps as the natural material. Spiroacetals are common phermones in wood boring beetles and other fruit flies. Spiroacetals will attract only the male olive fly. Yellow colors attract both male and female flies. Ammonia and protein hydrolysate attract both male and female flies.
 

There is a less toxic trap which can be make out of a plastic bottle. Paul Vossen of the U.C. Davis agricultural extension office saw this being used in Spain when there last year. The commercial version is filled with a commercial liquid olive fly attractant. Small holes near the top allow the fly to enter and get trapped. The low cost plastic bottle variation was being used in some organic orchards, evidently with good results.

Take a 1-2 liter plastic plastic bottle and drill four to six 5mm sized holes into the neck with a drill or hot wire. A hot paperclip makes about the right sized hole. Fill 3/4 full with a solution of 5% diammonium phosphate with or without 1-2% protein hydrolysate. (A 5% solution would be 5 grams per liter of water.) Ammonium phosphate can be found in any gardening supply store and the protein hydrolysate can be found in health food stores or farm supply stores. Later in the year spiroacetal capsules can be added. Hang traps in tree canopy by wire or string on the south side of the tree at a rate of 20 per acre. In the Northern hemisphere hang on the South side of the tree.

Palestinian Olive Harvest

Exhausted from this year's olive harvest? What if you had bullets whizzing overhead while you were doing it. The Palestinian Israeli conflict has once again affected the olive harvest.  For years some Palestinians have been thwarted from picking their olives by nearby militant Israeli settlers in the "Olive Wars".  Israeli settlers have declared a clear zone around settlements near Aqraba, Yanoun and other Palestinian villages to prevent terrorist acts. Occupants of the illegal Israeli settlements feel that the olive-picking season may be used as a trap to enable Palestinians to attack Israeli citizens so have tried to prevent the harvest and destroy the olive groves

In previous years Palestinian villagers felt that income from the olives did not justify the sometimes lethal encounters with the Israelis at harvest time but with the increased violence in the Middle East many Palestinians can no longer commute into Israel to earn money. As in centuries past, villagers can fall back on the olive trees for income, oil and pomace which is burned for heat.  Palestinian extended families may own a few hundred trees, each of which will yield $5 worth of oil in a good year. 

But the pickers are seen as a threat and are often attacked and forced from their fields. Israelis from the outposts, bitter over suicide bombings and roadside ambushes, feel justified in shooting at olive pickers to stop the harvest and punish the villagers economically.  This has caught the attention of several international activist groups such as the International Solidarity Movement which now send volunteers to try to prevent the harvest violence.  This season over 100 international activists were in Palestine to help with the harvest and to try to prevent the destruction of olive groves.  The peace activists have gone home with stories of having been beaten along with Palestinian women, children and the old as they were forced from the groves.

The actions of the Israeli militants and private security squads has been decried by the international community and members of the Israeli parliament.  The Israeli government has not been successful in preventing the violence or stopping the expansion or building of new illegal settlements. Peace activists claim that over two hundred thousand Palestinian olive trees have been destroyed during the last two harvest seasons.

For more information about activist organizations:

International Solidarity Movement
Foundation for Middle East Peace

New Sciabica Joins Family Operation

Jack asks: We think MUSCO is the largest supplier of Large Deli Olives in brine, in the U.S.
Can you tell us the names of the companies that are the next 4 largest suppliers,

OOS responds: We get many questions about table olives. The brined olive and the olive oil businesses are quite distinct.  The two businesses may grow different varieties of trees, prune and care for them differently, pick at a different time of year with different methods and market to a different segment. We don't track information on table olives but the California Olive Committee does. Recent cheap subsidized imports have devastated the industry resulting in bankruptcy and consolidation. Please contact them at their colorful website or see the list of suppliers  Also see the Musco site. We don't have names but they have games: Click on their logo:

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