Chuckling DuckA bumper crop of sour cherries turned to mush thanks to Spotted-wing Drosophila. Instead of having jam and pie, we have rotting fruit lying on the ground. Very peeved. #gardening #pests #SpottedWingDrosophila #SourCherry
thegardendude 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇵🇸@friesen5000 Ugh I'm so sorry. My experience pretty much every year with both my apples and peaches...fruit ends up rotting as it starts to ripen 🤬
bearsongus too
gutted :(
@bearsong It sucks! While not exhaustive, so far my search for treatment has only turned up chemical pesticides. Apparently it's the year for them, at least around here.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/fruit-flies-problems-manitoba-farmers-1.7270822
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/fruit-flies-problems-manitoba-farmers-1.7270822
Nancy Gleason (MOVED instance)@friesen5000 I’m not sure of the quantity you’re dealing with, but my adaptation to a drosophila nightmare in my local blackberry patch was to soak all the berries in vodka for a month, then toss out the berries and drink tasty cocktails. Probably not feasible on a commercial farm scale.
@ncgleason brilliant! I just have 2 trees so would be feasible.
@ncgleason also, did you notice a drop in population levels the following year since so many larvae were 'pickled'?
@friesen5000 I can’t provide a scientific answer to that because I went a couple weeks earlier in the season in the following year, so there were fewer fly larvae, but could have been either timing or overall population level. I also only harvested maybe 10% of what was available because it’s a shared neighborhood resource and I don’t know how many of us pick from there. Also hard to say whether my extraction levels could have affected insect habitat to a measurable extent.