Check your fruit!

We have had a lot of reports of infested fruit in the last couple of weeks. Fruits affected so far have been loquats, cherries, apricots, plums and nectarines.

In an effort to stop an explosion in fruit fly numbers, it is vital to keep an eye on any fruit that you have on your trees for signs of infestation. Check your trees for ripening fruit – if fruit is infested it will ripen faster. Fruit can also have sap dripping from an infestation site, or a discolouration of the flesh.

If you find one infested fruit, you are likely to find more – female fruit flies will lay eggs in multiple fruits, and each female can lay more than 500 eggs.

The picture above shows the infestation site of eggs laid into a Valencia orange. This orange was found on the 9th of December. When the orange was cut open, fruit fly larvae were found inside (see video below).

Please don’t let your guard down – we can still take steps to reduce the numbers the next generation of fruit fly. If you have a tree that you want to keep safe from attack, you need to cover it with a suitable insect exclusion net at least 6 weeks prior to harvest.