THE INFLUENCE OF OLIVE MOTH (PRAYS OLEAE BERN) ON OLIVE PRODUCTION

The influence of olive moth on olive production was studied since 1987. In ‘Tsounati’ a high percentage of the fruit drop was due to non parasitic causes. The damage caused by Dacus oleae Gmel was lower in comparison to the previous one, but it was significant, while the fruit drop caused by Prays oleae Bern was even lower and not significant. No observation were made on the table variety ‘Kalamon’ during 1987 because its production was negligible due to the bad weather which occurred during April of that year. The yield of the trees during the period 1988–89 was satisfactory in both varieties. It was observed that the fruit drop expressed in percentage of the total yield of the trees was higher in ‘Kalamon’ (42.1%) than in ‘Tsounati’ (39.8%).