Please Help Prevent Foreign 

Fruit Fly Outbreaks

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service (APHIS) and your State’s department of agriculture 

need your help in preventing and minimizing fruit fly outbreaks. 

Foreign fruit flies pose a significant risk to the United States’ 

agricultural and environmental resources. Besides attacking oranges 

and grapefruits commonly grown in backyards and orchards, fruit flies 

attack many different varieties of fruits, nuts, and vegetables.

United States Department of Agriculture

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Program Aid No. 1778

Issued July 2004 • Reprinted June 2016 

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

Trapping for Fruit Flies

While you were away, an authorized government official stopped 

by to request permission to place on your property a trap designed 

to attract and capture fruit flies. These traps are placed to detect 

fruit flies before their populations can become established. Early 

detection provides the best means of preventing large fruit fly 

outbreaks that could devastate the U.S. ecology, economy, and 

agriculture. And discovering outbreaks when they are small allows for 

control of the pest with minimal impact on affected homeowners and 

the environment.

Because we hope you will team up with us to protect the United 

States from these destructive pests, we placed the trap in your 

absence. Please do not handle this trap. It will be monitored 

weekly. If you disapprove of the trap’s placement on your property, 

contact the office listed in the box on the back of this doorhanger to 

have it removed.

Adult Mediterranean fruit fly Adult Mexican fruit fly
Trap Categories

Varying in size and shape, as well as the type of lure used, different 

traps target a wide range of fruit flies. Inspectors may have placed 

any of the following trap types on your property:

1. The Jackson trap is white and triangular. A small amount of bait 

is applied to a wick or placed in a little basket inside the trap body. 

Jackson traps contain a sticky insert to capture fruit flies, and some of 

these traps have a small amount of pesticide mixed with the bait.

2. The McPhail trap is a glass or plastic, bell-shaped container that 

employs either a food-based or synthetic attractant and water to lure 

and trap fruit flies.

3. The yellow panel trap is a rectangular cardboard trap coated on 

both sides with a mixture of a sticky substance and a pheromone (sex 

attractant) bait.

4. The multilure trap is a clear and yellow plastic device that contains 

several different kinds of lures to maximize trap yields.

Additional Information

If you would like additional information about our fruit fly trapping 

program or steps you can take to help prevent or minimize the impact 

of fruit fly outbreaks, please contact us at the office listed below.

The Jackson trap The McPhail 

trap

The multilure trap

Photo credits: The image of the multilure trap was taken by USDAAgricultural Research Service photographer Peggy Greb. The image 

of the Mexican fruit fly was shot by APHIS photographer R. Anson 

Eaglin. The remaining pictures are APHIS file photos.

The yellow 

panel trap