After some ups and downs wherein Ariel Kirk, Steuben County CCE, and I had our cars die (she's got a car now, I still need to get one), we've got the Steuben County SWD report for you! On August 17, 2021, two males were caught on red sticky traps set in a blueberry planting. And the following week, on August 24, another two males were caught on red sticky card traps. No Scentry jar traps were set in the blueberry planting.
Some years, Steuben County is the last county in the network in which SWD is caught and some years SWD catch there is quite early. Even after almost ten years of running the network, I am mystified by when and where SWD shows up in traps. All sites have now caught SWD and the trap-network traps have been taken down across New York State.
At this point in time, I'm still trapping (for fun?) at two farms (tart cherry and raspberry). My focus is to look for tiny parasitic wasps (they don't sting), in an effort to identify parasitoids of SWD so that we might be able to engage some natural enemies against this invasive. Parasitoids of insect pests are encouraged either through augmentation, where additional parasitoids are reared in an insectary (an insect nursery) and released to do their work, or through conservation — of habitat, alternate prey, or pesticide selection (i.e. IPM). Currently, in the Scentry jar traps there are numerous SWD, sometimes making up the majority of the fruit flies caught!
Therefore, if you have susceptible fruit ripe or ripening (fall raspberry, blackberry, late season blueberry, day-neutral strawberry, elderberry, soft-skinned grapes) it is now essential to have an insecticide program in place, on top of the additional management tactics you can bring to bear on SWD. The insecticide quick guides are on the SWD Management page, fruit.cornell.edu/spottedwing/management/, along with more information on managing SWD.