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One female SWD was caught in a trap collected on June 25, 2015 at a Schuyler County research site. The trap contained whole wheat fermenting bread dough as the lure and was located on the edge of a blueberry planting. (This site doesn't report to the SWD distribution map.)

The New York SWD distribution map reports will come from the NY monitoring network which has traps out in 29 Counties at 48 different sites. So far only Orange County and Wayne County traps in this network have caught SWD – a single female each.

People monitoring in the SWD network are with Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Cornell Cooperative Extension. Four traps are placed at each site, two within the crop, either raspberry or blueberry, and two on the edge of the crop, though some sites may have only two traps. Below is a table with details about the SWD network trap locations.

2015SWDnetworkTable

A single SWD female was caught on June 24, 2015 in Wayne County at a site in our monitoring network in a trap baited with the standard fermenting whole wheat bread dough. This site is being monitored by Juliet Carroll, NYS IPM Program. Her technician Nicole Mattoon identified the lone female among the other insects in the trap. The trap was located within a summer raspberry planting. Fruit are beginning to ripen at this location. This farm also has June strawberry nearing the end of harvest, sweet cherry, peach, blueberry and day neutral strawberry. It is time to carefully plan out the best strategy for your farm to manage SWD on vulnerable crops. (GDD = 805, day length = 15:20)

A single female was caught at a research site in Orange County using a baited Trécé trap, set during the week of June 15th-22nd by Peter Jentsch, entomologist, Hudson Valley Laboratory, Cornell University. The trap uses a combination lure incorporating both pheromone and kairomone—a feeding attractant. Jentsch examined red raspberry fruit from a 25-count-sample collected on Monday the 22nd (var. Caroline) and no ovipositional stings or egg breathing tubes were found. Read more on The Jentsch Lab blog.

Female SWD on a raspberry.
Female SWD on a raspberry.

These females are capable of laying eggs, so it is time to get set, get ready, and go protect your fruit crops. June strawberry harvest is winding down, so this crop may not need protection. Summer raspberry is showing ripe fruit now and will be at risk in 2015. Sweet cherry and tart cherry will be at risk, since they may ripen and be harvested over the next few weeks, consider what materials you have in your insecticide programs and make sure that SWD is covered.

The research comparing different lures for catching SWD early is ongoing at three locations in NY - comparisons are being done between a Trécé lure, a Sentry lure, a boosted lure from Trécé, the standard fermenting bread dough (used in the NY monitoring network), Cha Landolt synthetic lure, and apple cider vinegar alone. These research sites aren't included on the SWD distribution map, so don't be confused by Orange County still showing in gray for none found. This means there have been none found in the monitoring network sites in Orange County.

The 2015 trapping season is underway and first detection of SWD has occurred in Ontario, Canada and New York State. This is certainly earlier than in 2014! It is also the earliest trap catch reported for New York since this invasive arrived here in 2012. Typically, a single trap (out of four) is catching a single female, indicating counts are low. Eggs laid by those females will become adults in about a week's time.

Low trap catch counts are a good alert for you to get ready to protect your crops. We have updated the quick reference tables for insecticides for berries, tree fruit and grapes. Step up fruit monitoring in your June strawberry fields. Be vigilant of your summer raspberry plantings and know when ripe fruit are developing. Consider protecting sweet cherry and tart cherry with an insecticide targeted at SWD in your treatment program. Keep tabs on reports from your county from our monitoring network via the SWD blog.

In NY, first catch was reported from one research site in the Finger Lakes—a single female SWD in a trap on the edge of a summer raspberry planting in Schuyler County, NY—using a commercially available Sentry lure with unscented soapy water as the drowning solution. New this season, I'll be reporting research findings comparing different lures for trapping SWD from Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and the Finger Lakes regions of NY. These reports aren't included on the NY distribution map.

In Ontario, Canada they have found low numbers of flies at sites in Essex, Norfolk, Oxford, and Halton counties and the Niagara and Durham region; three of the sites were in blueberry plantings. This is about three weeks earlier than normal for Ontario Province. On their ONfruit blog is an excellent photograph of what an infested strawberry will look like—note the sunken spot on the fruit surface.

Male SWD on blackberry in August.
Male SWD on blackberry in August.

Sixteen cooperators with Cornell Cooperative Extension and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will be monitoring approximately 134 traps at 50 locations in 29 Counties in NY (Albany, Cayuga, Chemung, Clinton, Columbia, Dutchess, Erie, Essex, Genesee, Herkimer, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Orleans, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Suffolk, Tioga, Ulster, Washington, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates). No first catch reports have come in from these sites as of this writing. Our goal is to monitor SWD until first catch and report this on the blog and on the NY SWD distribution map so growers can protect their crops.

Historic look at first catch reports in NY
In 2012, first report by rearing (two week lag time) was on June 27, in June strawberry, Monroe County.
In 2012, first catch was on July 6, in sweet cherry, Yates County.
In 2013, first catch was on June 11 in woods, Ontario County.
In 2014, first catch was on July 9 in raspberry, Suffolk County.
In 2015, first catch was on June 18, in raspberry, Schuyler County.

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