A single female SWD has ushered in SWD management in a blueberry planting in Onondaga County. The offending insect was caught in one of the four traps checked on June 23, 2020. Fruit is starting to color and, as it ripens, will be susceptible to egg-laying. These traps are being monitored by Grace Marshall, NYS IPM Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Across New York, SWD reports are coming in – either first or sustained catch. This is at a time when berries and cherries are ripening up for harvest. This co-occurrence of events places these susceptible crops at high risk of infestation. It will be very important to bring to bear every management tactic and monitoring tactic available to stay ahead of SWD and protect your harvests. Read up on SWD Management, fruit.cornell.edu/spottedwing/management/, on Cornell Fruit Resources.
Pest management for SWD includes:
- Mowing – to reduce humidity and niches for SWD harborage and to increase sun penetration.
- Weed management – to reduce humidity, alternate fruiting hosts and harborage and to increase sun penetration.
- Pruning – to reduce humidity and to increase sun and spray penetration.
- Monitoring – to know if SWD is present when fruit is ripening.
- Sanitation – to reduce reproduction harborage and overall SWD population.
- Cold storage – to slow or kill any eggs and larvae in harvested fruit.
- Timely application of insecticides – to protect the crop from egg laying.
- Insecticide Quick Guides for NY State are found here (refresh the page to see the latest version) -
- For berry crops www.hort.cornell.edu/fruit/pdfs/swd/berry-insecticides.pdf
- For stone fruit and grapes www.hort.cornell.edu/fruit/pdfs/swd/treefruit-grape-insecticides.pdf
Organic Growers: insecticides allowable in organic production are in the quick guides. Please note, Entrust must be rotated with other organically-approved insecticides in different IRAC groups to prevent resistance developing in SWD against Entrust. One option is Grandevo. We have new information showing it has moderate activity against SWD. The listing on the quick guide has been revised for stone fruit and grapes, but still needs to be updated for berries.
Learn more about SWD. Check out the information on Cornell Fruit Resources Spotted Wing Drosophila, fruit.cornell.edu/spottedwing/.