Seasonal Fruit Fly management reminders

By Contributed

Aug 29, 2022

Important task: You should have your fruit fly monitor traps set up anywhere on your property that you have host plants, such as in fruit trees. Place some Fruit Fly Attractant Gel in the base of the trap. This gel will attract male and female fruit fly. Also add one DDVP (Dichlorvos) cube to the trap.

Now that spring is approaching there are a number of important tasks that home gardeners should be undertaking to manage Queensland Fruit Fly.

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You should have your fruit-fly monitor traps set up anywhere on your property that you have host plants, such as in fruit trees.

Place some Fruit Fly Attractant Gel in the base of the trap.

This gel will attract male and female fruit fly. Also add one DDVP (Dichlorvos) cube to the trap.

This will kill any fruit flies that enter the trap.

Trapping is undertaken as part of your overall management plan as it will initially alerts you to the presence of fruit fly.

Your trap should placed in an open shade area about half way between the trunk and the outer edge of the foliage about 1.6 metres above the ground.

The traps must be monitored on a weekly basis and baits replenished as required.

For a domestic orchard, install one trap every 15 square metres.

Pick and dispose of any excess ripe citrus, especially grapefruit, tangelos, mandarins and late-season oranges.

Early ripening fruit, such as loquats are also a high-risk fruit at this time of year.

At this time of year many gardeners thoughts will have turned to tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants.

A forward plan on how to protect them, so you can get a fruit fly free crop is a necessity.

Remember, QFF are only about 7mm long, so they can get through small gaps or holes in nets. Every female is capable of laying up top 200 eggs. Little critters which cause a lot of damage.

Exclusion netting is the best way to keep your fruit and vegetables free of fruit fly. It will also protect ripening produce from other pests such as the green vegetable bug, birds, etc.

The Rotary Club of Benalla has exclusion netting available for sale and we are also able to provide advice on the correct installation of nets.

If you are not intending to manage fruit fly in your garden, then the best option is to remove any fruiting plants and trees that may be hosts for fruit fly.

If you need help to remove unwanted fruit trees please contact the Rotary Club of Benalla.

We may be able to provide help with the removal, but this would be assessed on a case by case basis.

You can contact us via our Facebook page or by emailing: secretary@benallarotaryclub.com or brucewalker3@bigpond.com

By Contributed

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