Two SWD females were caught in one out of four traps set in a blackberry planting in Saratoga County during the week ending July 11, 2018. The trap that caught SWD was on the edge of the planting. These traps are being monitored by Natasha Field and Laura McDermott, Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program.
Keep an eye on your crop and monitor for SWD! More information on the SWD Monitoring page.
Protect your crop and use all possible tactics to manage SWD! More information on the SWD Management page.
SWD female showing the characteristic saw-tooth ovipositor in the inset, upper left. Note the thin, dark, unbroken bands on the abdomen.
A single female was found in a trap set on the edge of a blueberry planting in Washington County during the week ending July 10, 2018. None of the three other traps caught any SWD. Natasha Field and Laura McDermott, Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program, are monitoring SWD at this location.
A single female SWD was found in a trap set on the edge of a raspberry planting in Orleans County during the week ending July 10, 2018. The other tap set in the crop caught zero SWD. These traps are being monitored by Tess Grasswitz, Lake Ontario Fruit Program.
Clean harvests, removing overripe fruit, weed management, and mowing all help reduce favorable habitat for SWD. See details on the SWD Management page on Cornell Fruit Resources.
Tiny threads of the SWD egg breathing tubes indicate where an egg was laid in a raspberry.
You can monitor SWD in your fruit plantings using a simple, easy to make trap and bread dough lure. Instructions on how to make an SWD trap are available on the Cornell Fruit Resources SWD Monitoring web page. Check traps daily to minimize the number of fruit flies you will need to sort through to find SWD; and focus on identifying the males, because they’re easy to ID. You can also sample fruit and check it for larvae via salt flotation.
Eight SWD were caught in raspberry and 5 in blueberry in side-by-side plantings in Schuyler County during the week ending July 9, 2018. Traps set in raspberry had 1 male and 4 females. Traps on the edge of the raspberry planting had 3 females. Traps set in the blueberry field had 4 females and those on the edge of the crop had 1 female. These traps are being monitored by Ryan Parker and Juliet Carroll, NYS IPM Program.
Checking fruit for larva with salt flotation at a workshop on SWD.
These data suggest that both raspberries and blueberries are at risk of infestation. Monitoring on your own farm is warranted – using traps, sampling fruit with salt flotation, and examining fruit for signs of infestation. All these methods are described on the SWD Monitoring web page.
Four female SWD were caught the week ending July 9, 2018 in a harvested sweet cherry orchard after two weeks of zero SWD catch. The two traps set within the orchard had 2 females in one and 1 female in the other. The two traps set on the edge of the orchard caught only 1 female SWD. These traps are being monitored by Natasha Field and Laura McDermott, Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. Natasha will check traps next week to see if there is sustained catch.
As with June-bearing strawberry, SWD may use remnant sweet cherry fruit as a resource to feed on and reproduce in, allowing populations to build in the orchard and spill over onto nearby susceptible crops.
Sustained catch of 5 SWD was obtained in Schenectady County during the week ending July 11, 2018. Four traps set in and around summer raspberry caught 2 males in the crop and 1 male and 2 females on the edge of the crop. These traps are being monitored by Natasha Field and Laura McDermott, Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program.
10 SWD were caught in Clinton County and 13 SWD in a raspberry field in Essex County and 4 in a blueberry field in Essex County during the week ending July 9, 2018. These traps are being monitored by Andy Galimberti and Amy Ivy, Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program.
In Clinton County the four traps were set two each in raspberry and blueberry. The traps in blueberry caught zero SWD. In raspberry, 1 male and 6 females were caught and on the edge of the crop 3 females were caught.
In Essex County, most of the SWD were caught in the raspberry planting - 7 males and 5 females. Only 1 female was caught on the edge of the crop. In the blueberry planting being monitored in Essex County, zero SWD were caught in the crop and 2 males and 2 females were caught on the edge of the crop.
Male SWD on raspberry.
These data suggest that raspberries are at highest risk of infestation, though ripe blueberry are also at risk. Monitoring on your own farm is warranted - using traps, sampling fruit with salt flotation, and examining fruit for signs of infestation. All these methods are described on the SWD Monitoring web page.
52 SWD were caught in Rensselaer County and 67 were caught in Albany County during the weeks ending July 10 and July 9, 2018, respectively. For Rensselaer County, this was the third consecutive week of SWD capture. In Albany County this was sustained catch. Four traps were being monitored at each location by Natasha Field and Laura McDermott, Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program.
Three male spotted wing Drosophila. Note the spot on each wing, which is on the end of the first vein from the outer edge of the wing.
Specifically for the Rensselaer County location, two traps are within an exclusion netted blueberry planting wherein a single male was caught. Compare that to 39 males and 13 females in the two traps set outside the exclusion netting. These traps were in a hedgerow adjacent to a June-bearing strawberry field that is done being harvested. Prompt renovation of June-bearing strawberry fields is warranted.
This level of trap catch points out the importance of not leaving unharvested, overripe fruit in fruit plantings and orchards. Dropped blueberries and raspberries can be sprayed with Danitol 2.4 EC and dropped apples, pears and stone fruit can be treated with Asana XL (2ee) to control SWD. Review the quick guide on this, if this might be an option you want to pursue to reduce SWD populations. The importance of sanitation to manage this insect cannot be overemphasized.
In Albany County, traps are set in and around summer raspberry, The two traps set in the crop caught 19 males and 9 females; the traps set on the edge of the crop caught 29 males and 10 females. SWD management tactics need to be put in place to protect ripe and ripening raspberries.
If you want to monitor SWD in your fruit plantings, a simple, easy to make trap and bread dough lure can be used. Instructions on how to make an SWD trap are available on the Cornell Fruit ResourcesSWD Monitoring web page. Check traps daily to minimize the number of fruit flies you will need to sort through to find SWD; and focus on identifying the males, because they're easy to ID. You can also sample fruit and check it for larvae via salt flotation.
SWD was caught in three of seven tart cherry orchards we are monitoring, during the week ending July 6. All three of these sites are near Lake Ontario in Wayne County. Inland sites in Wayne and Ontario Counties have yet to catch SWD.
Harvest dates were projected to be one to three weeks out. However, the heat of late has brought fruit to ripeness faster than expected. Fruit is at high risk of infestation because it is now ripe and soft. We will continue trapping at these sites through harvest.
For SWD management in Michigan tart cherries, monitoring with SWD traps is used to determine when SWD is in the orchard. Once SWD is found, it is time to initiate a spray program to protect tart cherries, regardless of the number caught.
Collecting a Scentry trap to check for SWD in a tart cherry orchard.
The seven orchards we are monitoring have two Scentry traps in the block, one in the interior of the block (In) and one on the edge of the block (Out). Here are the numbers for each of the three sites:
In: 1 male; Out: 1 female
In: 1 female; Out: zero
In: 4 females; Out: 2 females
Mostly females were caught — a somewhat typical pattern, wherein females are caught first.
For best results, sprays should be applied at 7 day intervals. If it rains, apply an insecticide as soon as possible after the rain. Refer to the insecticide quick guide for tree fruit.
A recap of efficacy (days-to-harvest) for insecticides labeled for use on tart cherry against SWD; strikethrough on materials with likely too long a preharvest interval.
Excellent – Exirel (3 days), Minecto Pro (21 days), Danitol (3 days), Mustang Max (14 days), Imidan (7 days)
Fair to Poor – Grandevo (zero days) This biological may prove useful in close rotation (3 days) with excellent materials, such as Entrust to bring you up to harvest. This is how it is being used in commercial blueberry production in NJ.
Other management tactics to consider:
Mowing row middles every other week was found to significantly reduce SWD infestation over no mowing in Michigan. Trees were unsprayed and 3 gallons of fruit sampled at harvest for SWD larvae showed, on average, 100 larvae in unmowed orchard setting versus 25 in the mowed orchard; a 75% reduction.
Test fruit pressure? In plums, if fruit was greater than 3.5 lbs pressure it wasn’t susceptible. If less than 3.5 lbs pressure it was susceptible to SWD.
SWD was caught two weeks in a row in a summer raspberry planting in Cayuga County. Sustained catch indicates that SWD will be found consistently on this farm and populations will continue to build, necessitating insecticide treatment to protect the crop from infestation. Two of the four traps set in and around summer raspberries caught a total of four SWD during the week ending July 2, 2018. Two males and one female were caught in the trap within the crop and one male in the trap on the edge of the crop.
Female SWD on a raspberry.
These U-pick raspberries have been heavily picked, which will help keep SWD populations down. Last week's heat may have suppressed SWD.
To protect the crop through the end of harvest, insecticides will be needed on about a weekly basis, rotating with insecticides of different modes of action to reduce the risk of insecticide resistance developing in SWD.
Clean harvests, removing overripe fruit, weed management, and mowing all help reduce favorable habitat for SWD. See details on the SWD Management page on Cornell Fruit Resources.
Traps at this location are being monitored by Nicole Mattoon and Ryan Parker, working with Juliet Carroll, NYS IPM Program.
