Drosophila suzukii update

The following refers to trap counts taken on June 2 of Drosophila suzukii, previously (incorrectly) identified in this post as Drosophila biarmipes.

Several raspberry fields have fairly high counts of D. suzukii now.  One in the vicinity of Peckham Rd and another on Riverside Rd have counts in excess of 50 D. suzukii males (identified by the spots on the back of each wing) per trap, numbers which would be consistent with some fruit damage.  Another raspberry planting on Thompson Rd also has seen an increase to 28  male flies found in one trap.  It is recommended in these cases to start a program of control.

Two farms which have been applying GF 120 fruit fly bait since the end of March/ beginning of April have seen sharp reductions in the numbers of D. melanogaster and D. suzukii trapped.  While this is not a controlled study with an untreated check, it does suggest that consistent, weekly applications of GF 120 fruit fly bait are useful in reducing numbers of this pest.

Another point of interest is that one raspberry plantation that had increasing numbers of vinegar flies (both D. melanogaster and D. suzukii) made a series of 3 applications of Entrust (which contains the same active ingredient as GF 120 fruit fly bait) over a two week period to control leaf rollers.   The last trap reading had a single vinegar fly found, again suggesting some effect of this pesticide on the vinegar fly population.  However, this is not a trial with an untreated control, so this evidence should be understood as being anecdotal only.

To date, blackberry fields have had very few flies trapped.

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