A variety of insects and mites are found on the surface of harvested fruit. These species may have no economic significance in production, but become an issue for exported products. For example, sweet cherries are currently fumigated with methyl bromide prior to shipment to Australia and Japan due to the presence of various thrips and mite species. Some of these shipments are re-fumigation upon arrival due to the detection of the same species. 
Surfactants are chemicals that reduce surface tension in liquids, and thus, are commonly used as wetting agents. These studies examine their potential to reduce pest numbers, either by removal or mortality, as well as tolerance of the commodity to treatment.  

Presentations

Surfactant trials. Postharvest lab, UC Davis

Use of surfactants to remove surface pests from cherries (pdf)
Beth Mitcham, Tiffanie Simpson, Veronique Bikoba and Jim Hansen
2007
This PowerPoint presentation includes data tables for the study below. Cherries were infested with two-spotted spider mite and western flower thrips, then subjected to various treatments of Agrinse 7 and chlorine.  The treatments did not effect cherry quality. Overall, a low number of live mites and thrips remained on treated fruit.

Surfactant Studies

The use of Agrinse 7, a silicone-based surfactant, to control surface pests on harvested California Bing sweet cherries : a report to the California Cherry Advisory Board (pdf)
Tiffanie Simpson, Veronique Bikoba, Jim Hansen, and Elizabeth Mitcham
2006
This document reported on the same study as the above presentation. The authors suggest that future studies using surfactants would be useful in assessing pest survivorship more precisely.