Seven male and 5 female SWD were caught on July 6, 2016 in two traps set in a hedgerow on the edge of a June strawberry planting in Rensselaer County. These traps are being monitored by Annie Mills, technician, and Laura McDermott, Extension Educator, with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program (ENYCHP), Cornell Cooperative Extension.
These traps are near a blueberry planting that is covered with exclusion netting. To date, no SWD have been caught in traps set inside the netting.
This is a fairly large number of SWD—13 total caught in the traps at this location. SWD populations are building up in this vicinity. This could be taken as a sign that populations in many locations may build up soon.
Growers should take steps to protect vulnerable fruit with an insecticide program that rotates active ingredients to prevent insecticide resistance devloping in SWD, sanitation measures to remove fruit debris and over-ripe fruit that serve as food and egg-laying resources for SWD, and establishing a cold chain after harvest, i.e. refrigerating harvested fruit to stop/kill SWD in fruit. More on SWD management is on Cornell Fruit Resources.