I resorted to spraying my figs with spinosad. Hope it knocks back the population. It seems the rain we’ve been getting is conjuring up all sorts of bugs. I’ve found fruit flies, ants, and earwigs eating mine.
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Good to know! Would you spray now while the figs are ready to eat? I just wonder what to do with the open ostioles on these guys.
The first picture shows a female spotted wing drosophila, I can clearly see the spots. The second picture is not as clear, but I think I can see racing stripes on a couple which would mean AFF. If you can, look for the white eggs inside if the ostiole and on the scales, there is some whiteness I can see but can’t make it out clearly.
I believe AFF larvae are killed by refrigeration, so try that and see if it helps.
The most important fruit fly control measure is to pick and bag all spoiled fruit and leave sealed in the sun (or discard in the trash). AFF does not typically appear here until later in September. At that time I still bag the fruit, but leave the bag open underneath the trees overnight. In the morning it will be filled with fruit flies, and I quickly close it and put it in the sun to kill them.
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I know this isn’t going to resolve the problem but at least you can save some of them by placing organza bags to protect the fruit.
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For AFF the solution is to cover the ostiole with a sticker or piece of tape as soon as the fig begins to swell up.
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Has anyone tried using for instance the 1/2 gallon (largest size available) air pruning bags for bagging? Brent I know you’ve grown in them. What have you got to say? I used them for here and there (not much fruiting going on here.)
My Mom put them over her ‘Mars’ grapes but the squirrels are digging/getting into the bags so she picked.
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That material should work well, when universities do pollination control experiments they use something similar, but large enough to slip over whole branches.
The problem people run into with bagging individual fruits is it can be difficult to get a tight enough seal around the stem to keep them from crawling in because they are so small.
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@hoosierbanana, thanks for the info! I caught around 20 or so in a bag and was able to get a good look. I don’t think they have the racing stripe, but I did notice the spotted wing on some. I will try your bag trick, and maybe the sticker trick too.
@Ruben, thanks for the idea. I might try that just to see if I get any figs to ripen on the tree. They are so much better that way!
Has anyone had luck bagging off entire branches with insect mesh? I wonder if that would be an option in the future.
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@hoosierbanana, I think you are correct about the AFF also being present. These were on my BT fig hung as a poison trap. I definitely see the racer stripes you mentioned. I can’t tell if the BT is working yet.
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The other thing to try is boric acid or borax, there was some research about using it in baits for SWD.
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@hoosierbanana, great idea! I realized that BT only kills caterpillars, so it wasn’t helping my fruit fly issue. So far, picking fruit before it ripens completely, and using borax baited fruit seems to be helping. I would still love to get some tree ripened figs at some point. I’ll probably try insect mesh next year.
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I think BTI used at a very high rate kills fruit flies just fine but you need to use like the gnatrol listed rates and not the rates for mosquitos.
Caterpillars the bacteria is btk and btg is for beetles.
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Spotted male SWDs here yesterday, cavorting about a split, soured RdB. Seem earlier this year. Dang.
Have not confirmed AFF yet, but suspect they’re here, as they’ve been reported in E. KY.
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That’s too bad. Do you have a treatment in mind? Please let us know how it turns out!
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Just watch them for now, and try to keep figs picked off at the early ripe stage. If they start to get bad, I guess I’ll try spinosad.
I actually meant to attempt a mass trapping system for SWDs this year, but things kept happening and I never got around to it. Next year for sure! (I hope it’s more successful than my cuke beetle trapping efforts!)
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Ughh, AFF is early this year. Need to be extra careful about sanitation, watch out for laid eggs, and trap as many as I can with spoiled figs.
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Brent, I think I’ve just seen them, too. They were definitely racing-striped.
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@hoosierbanana Any new learnings on combating fruit flies (various species)? This has been my worst fig season! Early on we were hammered by two massive rain events that spoiled much of the early crop, then for the past three weeks or so tons of yellow jackets have been attacking my figs, then the fruit flies came. My figs are now rotting just a few days after they start swelling because of the damn flies. I also noticed that some of those drosophila are attacking the skin of my Adriatic JH figs, creating very small punctures in them and perhaps laying eggs through them, on those same figs I find the half of the fig where they created those punctures rotting while the other half still firm/unripe!
I only have one fig tree… and so far this year around 20 fruit ripening at the same time.
Placing a tightly tied on organza bag on at first ripe color sign… has worked great for me.
You have to make that tie… very tight… but it can be done. No ants no f flies getting to my figs. Happy.
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I wonder what using beneficial nematodes would do?