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Hi Peter
Called Queensland Fruit Fly, it should be renamed Australian Fruit Fly, as with the warming planet this pest has gradually crept its way as far down as Victoria (but not to Tassie yet), creating a serious problem for both home and commercial gardeners.
It infiltrates a wide range of fruit from Apples to Tomatoes, including Apricots, Avocado, Berries, Capsicums, Cherries, Chillies, Eggplants, Grapes, Citrus, Olives and on and on and on, so you can see this is a serious pest that leaves your fruit inedible - your fruit may look ok on the outside, but inside it can be rotten
Stages of life
- Female fly injects eggs into the fruit, which is very hard to see
- Eggs hatch into maggots, which feed inside the fruit, eventually chewing the way out
- Once out they fall to the ground and borrow in changing to hard pupae
- When conditions are right, out the fruit fly comes to wreak its havoc once again!
To combat this little pest it is best to be proactive, if you wait to see you may lose your fruit. Populations usually increase in spring (which pretty much feels like now here), but with milder weather can remain active in autumn and winter, so stay vigilant.
If you know they are around, or if you have had them in the past, you can
- First and foremost, practice good garden hygiene by picking and using fruit when it is ready; removing unwanted fruiting trees and vegetables; plant dwarf varieties or prune your trees down making them easier to cover as well as not producing more fruit than you need; and don’t put infected fruit in the compost or worm farm as they will thrive rather than die!
- Hang traps to catch them – this will also allow you to monitor them, as if none a trapped you are Fruit Fly Free!
- Use a spray to create an unappealing environment for them
- Net host fruit and vegetables (our netting range does stop fruit fly)
If you have fruit fly and want to break its life cycle, you can
- Microwave or boil infected fruit then seal inside a plastic bag then freeze until it is solid
- For larger quantities, seal fruit in a garbage bag and leave in the sun for at least 2 weeks
- Once done these can then be put in the appropriate rubbish bin
If you want to make your own Fruit fly Trap, here is a recipe from Agriculture Victoria
- In an empty soft-drink bottle, cut three holes about the size of a 10-cent piece, 10cm from the top.
- Add the bait mixture to the bottle. Pour in 1 cup of 100 per cent fruit juice (including pulp) and 1 tablespoon of cloudy ammonia (or wheelie bin cleaner).
- Tie a string around the neck of the bottle and hang it from the tree in the shade, 1m to 1.5m off the ground.
- The mixture can last up to 3 weeks, but should be changed weekly for best results.
You can see by the length of this piece that this is not an easy pest to control and it is more likely that you will need to use a range of methods to achieve that
Hopefully you do not have these pests in your garden, but be prepared, our warmer climate will bring these challenges.
There is no way to Enjoy! this!
Peter
Remember we are offering 40% off our greenhouse kit, perfect for putting over your beds during Winter, to get the spring crop started early.
Also please note thatfree postage within Australia ENDS this month and charges will be applied again from August. With the significant increases in postage charges, we just cannot sustain this offer, unfortunately.
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