It is around this time of year that gardeners start to pull their hair out over the pest that is the Qld fruit fly. It is native to our region, but because we plant species that allow it to thrive it can become a huge problem. You could be doing everything right but if your neighbours aren’t, you still have a big problem.
Typically, a Qld fruit fly is about 7mm long and is a reddish-brown with yellow markings. It is mostly active in the spring and summer periods, but with higher temperatures they are engaged through to late autumn. The extension of the built environment and the warmth of concrete and brick means we have also created a corridor for the fruit fly to now be found much further south than ever before.
Summer fruits are commonly affected such as peach, nectarine, apricots, citrus, tomatoes, eggplants and capsicum.
The female fruit fly lays its eggs in the fruit, they hatch, and the maggots eat through the fruit until it falls to the ground or the maggot drops in to the soil where it gestates for a few weeks before emerging as a fruit fly.
While hard to control, there are several measures you can use to help:
Firstly good garden hygiene.
Pick up any fruit left on the ground daily and on the tree after the harvest.
Burn the infested fruit, or feed them to the chickens or ducks to clean up.
Do not put the fruit into your compost.
Net trees with fruit fly netting, but with a single female laying 500 eggs it can be a costly option that may not work if even one fly gets in.
Concentrate on building balanced, healthy soil - there are certain nematodes that feed off the fruit fly larvae.
Allow chickens and ducks to wander through occasionally to scratch up soil and eat any maggots that are pupating in the soil can help.
Use traps and attractants - Homemade traps can help keep the numbers to an acceptable level but commercial traps and attractant is the only thing I have found to have an effect.
Fruit fly control comes down to being consistent and regimented. Monitoring in early spring, setting traps and changing traps every 10 days to 2 weeks, maintaining a clean garden, and speaking with your neighbours about what you are doing and why. Choosing to grow soft fruit at different times of year or looking for native varieties of fruit that have thicker skin may help in controlling the QLD fruit fly.