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Previous research revealed that exposure to ginger root oil, Zingiber officinale Roscoe, containing the known male attractant (-copaene) increased the mating success of male Mediterranean fruit flies, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), from a newly established laboratory colony. The goal of the current study was to determine whether exposure to ginger root oil likewise enhanced the mating competitiveness of irradiated C. capitata males from a 5-yr-old mass-reared strain. Mating tests were conducted in field cages containing guava trees (Psidium guajava L.) to monitor the mating frequency of irradiated, mass-reared and wild males competing for wild females. In the absence of chemical exposure, wild males outcompeted the mass-reared males and obtained 74% of all matings. However, following exposure to ginger root oil (20 μl for 6 h), the mating frequencies were reversed. Whether exposed as mature (3-d …