Meeting to address Spotted Wing Drosophila, new pest for berry growers

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FARMINGTON – Franklin County Soil & Water Conservation District and the Franklin County Farm Bureau are co-sponsoring an informational meeting on the spotted wing Drosophila presented by David Handley, Vegetable & Small Fruit Specialist, University of Maine Cooperative Extension – Highmoor Farm and James Dill, Pest Management.

The meeting will be on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. in the Farmington Town office’s down stairs conference room. There is no cost and pre-registration is not required.

The Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) is a new pest which is a concern for raspberries blueberries and day neutral strawberries, as well as many other soft fruits. This insect is a small fruit fly, similar to the type that fly around the over ripe bananas in your kitchen. However, this species lays its eggs in fruit before it ripens, resulting in fruit that is contaminated with small white larvae just as it is ready to pick. As a result, the fruit quickly rots and has no shelf life. This insect recently came into the U.S. from northern Asia, and caused problems with many berry crops up the east coast in 2011. It can complete a generation in under two weeks, with each adult female laying hundreds of eggs. Therefore, millions of flies can be present soon after the introduction of just a few into a field. This makes them very difficult to control, and frequently repeated insecticide sprays (3 to 5 times per week) may be needed to prevent infestations once the insect is present in a field. It is likely that spotted winged drosophila can successfully over winter here, although it may not build up to damaging levels until summer.

In the fall of 2011, spotted wing drosophila flies were captured for the first time in Maine. Based on crop damage experienced by southern growers in 2010 and 2011, we knew that this insect posed a serious threat to most of the berry crops we grow here. As part of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Pest Management Program, drosophila traps were set up in berry fields around the southern, central and coastal regions of the state. The first spotted wing drosophila were caught in Limington on July 13. By August 13, flies had been captured at all of the monitoring locations. During the same week, traps in wild blueberry fields in Hancock and Washington counties were also catching the flies.

Growers and gardeners need to learn about this pest and develop strategies to manage it in their crops, as it appears that it will be a problem in Maine for the foreseeable future.

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