Fruit fly in Melbourne
Image from the National Fruit Fly Council
By Hanna Ashton-Lawson
As we patiently wait for the garden during our slow growing season, we begin planning our summer planting. When choosing my tomato varieties for the summer season, I am reflecting on my observations of past seasons in the garden. Al and I noticed that two summers ago, our large tomatoes seemed to be favoured and affected by big grubs. So last summer we chose small tomato varieties both in the plot and at home.
We saw less of the larger grubs, but unfortunately I believe we had our first experiences of fruit fly, particularly in our home garden (which is a five minute walk from the community garden). I knew it was a bad thing, but I’m only now really understanding the significance of the Queensland fruit fly being found so far south.
According to Diggers (article in the Autumn garden magazine, members only), there are a range of factors that are enabling Queensland fruit fly to be moving south, including increasing fruit movement across regions, and climate change and la nina weather patterns resulting in fewer occurences of cold snaps that would have ordinarily killed them off.
Both Diggers and Gardening Australia have featured articles on fruit fly in the past month. Gardening Australia’s feature was focussed on the Perth outbreak, but it was a helpful and stern reminder of the devastation that fruit fly wreaks on large crops and home gardens. The story can be viewed here.
In Victoria we need to learn about fruit fly management to protect each other’s gardens. The National Fruit Fly Council has information for management, which you can read about here, and it breaks down garden tasks season by season.
The main strategies include:
clean up fallen fruit and maintain good garden hygiene
using traps
freeze, boil, or bag (and leave in the sun) infected fruit
exclusion insect netting after pollination as the fruit is growing
You can purchase fruit fly traps from all the usual places, including here at Diggers. They are good controls for citrus gall wasp as well, which is a blog post all of its own.
My home shire - Mount Alexander Shire Council (home of the Harcourt apple orchards) has produced a series of videos on how to prevent fruit fly in your garden and feature a catchy, yet disgusting jingle. You can view one of them here.
So as we dream of spring and our gardens waking up, the fruit fly will be as well. Let’s work together to reduce the spread of Queensland fruit fly to protect our gardens and farms.