You know those fruit flies that hover and get in your face when you have fruit that got too ripe? The ones that scientists use as model systems to advance medicine?
They are highly annoying but don’t do much harm. The common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) will only lay eggs on fruit that is already damaged or is overripe.
The spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) is NOT that kind of fruit fly. It is a fruit-killing machine. The female even has a special egg-laying organ that is serrated like a saw, so she can lay her eggs inside ripening fruit.
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That makes the SWD a menace to a wide variety of soft-skinned fruit ranging from cherries to peaches. This fly is a particular threat to raspberries and blackberries and can totally devastate a late season crop.
This insect is fairly new to the mainland US and was first spotted in California in 2009. However, it didn’t take long to spread to most of the US, Canada, and Mexico.
The SWD has become the most studied pest of berries in the US.
It is difficult to control this fruit fly, but not impossible, and we at Gardener’s Path will provide information on organic techniques that have been successfully used to protect berries and other kinds of fruit from the spotted wing Drosophila.
Identification, Biology, and Life CycleThe spotted wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) is from East Asia and then became established in Hawaii.
These fruit flies are about 1/10-inch-long and have bright red eyes and black horizontal stripes on their abdomens. They live for 20-30 days.
The male SWD looks like a typical fruit
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