Fruit flies and fruit rot
Fruit flies are responsible for most of the world’s fruit spoilage. The female fruit fly lays eggs in the developing fruits, which hatch to infect more fruits. They present as rotten fruits with maggots in semi-ripe and ripe fruits.
Vulnerable Plants
The main targets are guava, mango, pomegranate, litchi, apples, avocado, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, etc. The fruits may be infected from the flowering to the ripening stage. Often with no external damage despite rotten flesh on the inside with maggots. These infected fruits act as reservoirs for more infestations.
Resistant Plants
Some fruits are spared from fruit flies, including raspberries, mulberries, grapes, elderberries, blackberries, goji berries and figs.
Fruit Fly control and prevention
Fruit fly traps control and surveillance by trapping the insects before they infect the fruits. When the traps are very active, the number of fruit flies is high, and interventions such as spraying are necessary. The infected fruits must be picked and destroyed before more fruit flies hatch and spread to other trees. Unfortunately, fruit flies can travel long distances from the neighbouring orchards and wild mango or guava trees. Therefore, a community effort to synchronize the sparing program and maintain year-round traps is necessary to prevent fruit spoilage.
Fruit fly traps
Current numbers of fruit flies in the traps suggest a high population, possibly, from poorly managed high mango yields last year. There is a very high risk that the mangoes, stone fruits, and avocados next season will be heavily infested with fruit flies unless preventative and curative measures are implemented. Our traps became less active after our first spraying when the fruit trees began to bloom in spring. Please tell your neighbours about fruit fly control to protect the community’s fruit harvest