## 4 Discussion  
Most ecological methods applied currently to control fruit flies require the use of attractants [19; 29; 55; 56]. The use of powerful and targeted attractants has become almost essential to control _C. capitata_. In the Mediterranean area, attractants are used basically in: 1. monitoring to quantify the growth of the pest population and choose the most effective period for actions (i.e., widespread application, included SIT); 2. mass capture procedures, placing a high density of traps with the objective of catching and killing as many adults (i.e., males and females) as possible; generally combining an effector (i.e., insecticides, insect growth regulators, sterilants, or pathogenic organisms) with a lure (i.e., food attractants like putrescine, trimethylamine, and ammonium acetate, combined with a semiochemical); and, 3. lure and kill (i.e., attracticide), usually using a protein hydrolysate-insecticide in combination with a semiochemical (optional) and applied by pulverization or using attractant devices [57]. In practice, mass trapping is difficult (i.e., mainly because a high density of traps requires high costs and has low attraction for females, and due to the saturation and efficiency of traps), which makes the attracticidal technique the most widely used on a small scale in combination with other methods (i.e., chemical or biological). SIT is the most promising and the one that has given the best results, although it requires high costs for its implementation. The standard  
Figure 5: _Certaintis capitata_ male comparative attraction between trimedlure (TML), de-eugenolyzed love essential oil (DCO), industrial fraction (IF), and their respective distilled fractions. Dose of the attractants was 5 \(\upmu\)g. Content of \(\alpha\)-copaene (\(\upmu\)g) in the samples was (0.103) DCO, (0.29) DCO1, (0.303) DCO2, (0.19) DCO3, (0.173) IF, (0.487) IF1, and (0.375) IF2. Values represent means \(\pm\) SE (\(n=3\)) with different generations. Each repetition (\(n\)) corresponds to the average of 5 cages with one hundred males cage\({}^{-1}\). Different letters for each time indicate statistically significant differences (One-way ANOVA, \(p<0.05\)). All reported \(F\) values have (8, 18) degrees of freedom. parapheromone for monitoring and trapping male medflies continues still to be trimedlure (tert-butyl 4-chloro-2-methylcyclohexane-1-carboxylate). Although effective, it is short-lived; hence, the release rate has directly been related to increasing the temperature [32; 58]. There are still significant efforts being made to extend the life of trimedlure dispensers in the field, since typical maximum efficacy does not exceed six weeks [59; 60; 61]. This forces in most cases making replacements of the dispensers with a significant increase in costs, especially under warm climate conditions (i.e., 28-43 \({}^{\circ}\)C) [62]. Also, medfly females are not attracted to either TML or \(\alpha\)-copaene [52; 63]. As an alternative, it is widely known that many EOs possess compounds that act with semiochemical activity (e.g., pheromone or allelochemical) capable of modifying the behavior of many species of insects [64; 65; 66]. In this sense, this study used clove oil as a source of \(\alpha\)-copaene and verified its attractant efficacy on \(C\). _capitata_. A background of difficulties with the chemical synthesis of \(\alpha\)-copaene was revealed by some research. In fact, racemic \(\alpha\)-copaene was synthesized for the first time by a 17-stage route based on a reaction of ketone-base-catalyzed cyclization [67; 68; 69]. Subsequently, other complex workarounds were devised, for instance, the conversion of a carvacrol-based monoterenoid or the intramolecular cycloaddition of a dienyl-substituted 3-oxidopyrylium [70; 71].