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First finds outside NY

Reports have come in from Southwest Michigan by Rufus Isaacs, Michigan State University, and Middlesex County in Connecticut by Rich Cowles, CT Agricultural Experiment Station of first catch of SWD. As of today, no one in the NY monitoring network has reported trap catch of SWD. Although the catch in Michigan was of several adults, the report from CT was of a single male.

Because this finding in central CT is of a single adult, don't interpret this as meaning that ripe fruit is immediately at risk.  What we have observed in the past is that we can capture a lone adult here or there, but it isn't until we get sustained captures in traps set in susceptible fruit plantings that growers are at risk of infestation.

On Long Island, fruit samples contained no evidence of infestation this week nor were any SWD caught in traps set there in Suffolk County. No other reports of SWD caught in traps have come in from NY. But do stay tuned. The number of other fruit flies being caught in my traps in Wayne County, Sodus Bay area, jumped significantly this week from around 150 per trap last week to almost 1000 other fruit flies per trap.

Although the heat has been unbearable in places...let's cheer, because SWD adults are intolerant of temperatures much above 90F.

2 thoughts on “First finds outside NY

  1. Jim Maryinuk

    Where can I purchase traps or materials to make some. I have raspberries ripening in my high tunnel and should probably have some in there to monitor. I have yellow sticky cards hanging about 8 foot along the row but haven't noticed any SWD there. But as you stated I to have seen other fruit flies stuck

  2. jec3@cornell.edu

    The yellow sticky cards will work for monitoring. Monitor both at the tunnel opening and in the interior. If using traps,keep the trap in the shade. Tunnel temperatures at or slightly above 90F may discourage/kill the SWD adults. Trap supplies can be bought locally at a grocery store - red plastic cups and lids, whole wheat flour, bread yeast, table sugar, apple cider vinegar and unscented detergent. At a hardware store you can get wire or a twist-tie spool to craft a loop hanger to hang the trap. At a fabric store you can get mesh fabric to filter the traps on (or get noseeum fabric from a camping supply house). More difficult will be to get the specimen cups, though, you might persuade a doctor's office to provide you with a few or source them online. Trap directions are at http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/spottedwing/pdfs/SWDTraps_CornellFruit.pdf. It is A-OK to eliminate the specimen cup with the bread dough mixture and use only the apple cider vinegar drowning solution to monitor SWD.
    Julie

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