For three weeks in a row, SWD has been caught at a farm in Chemung County. This week (June 26) two females and two males, and last week (June 19) one female, were caught in four traps set in a blueberry planting. Some of those SWD were caught in traps set in raspberries on this farm this week, as well. These traps are being monitored by Shona Ort, Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Chemung County. Neither the blueberries nor raspberries are ripe yet.
Shona and the farmer may have identified a possible source of SWD on the farm. Strawberries are planted near the blueberries and the woods. The grower hasn’t been able to pick the strawberries, because they have been … “just rotting in the rain and weeds.”
Sanitation can be very beneficial in IPM!
Sanitation eliminates SWD food and egg-laying resources and slows population growth. Cull fruit can be placed in clear plastic bags and left in the sun to bake or placed in a freezer to kill SWD larvae. Careful when timing mowing or renovation of strawberry fields so as to reduce movement of SWD into the next ripening crop on your farm. See last year’s blog on strawberry renovation, https://blogs.cornell.edu/swd1/2018/06/27/renovate-strawberry-plantings-promptly/.