Michigan spotted wing Drosophila report for June 24, 2014
Print
EmailFirst catches of spotted wing Drosophila are two weeks later than this time last year. Traps should be deployed already; protect ripening berries.
This is the first weekly report of the Michigan State University Extension spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) statewide monitoring effort for 2014. Our network of traps across more than 80 sites was checked during the week of June 15 and has revealed the first activity of this pest in Michigan this year. These same traps were checked the week before and no SWD were found, but over the past week traps placed at the edge of berry crop plantings and in adjacent areas have detected some activity of male, 5 total, and female, 21 total, SWD in four southwest Michigan counties: Berrien, VanBuren, Allegan, and Ottawa. As of yet, no SWD has been reported in southeast, west central, or northern Michigan this year, but monitoring is underway in those regions as well.
This first catch is a few weeks later than in 2012 or 2013, however, at some of the sites where SWD were trapped the flies are somewhat more abundant than first captures in previous years. Scouts, crop consultants, and growers should be on alert for this pest as their susceptible fruit crops start to ripen. SWD can only infest berries when they are ripening or ripe, so currently the focus of SWD monitoring and management efforts should be on ripening strawberries and early summer raspberries. In addition to the use of monitoring traps to detect the adult flies, a simple salt solution (1 cup of salt per gallon of water) can be used to assess fruit for larval infestation. As blueberry, cherry and other susceptible crops ripen, growers will need to make management decisions based on fly activity and crop ripeness stage.
For more information on SWD monitoring and management strategies, and to read past reports, visit Michigan State University‘s spotted wing Drosophila website.
The weekly SWD statewide monitoring report has been funded through Project GREEEN and Michigan State University Extension. This output is generated through a network of MSU Extension field staff and campus specialists. We would like to acknowledge the following team members and thank them for their weekly scouting efforts and input into this report: Rufus Isaacs, Keith Mason, Steve VanTimmeren, Larry Gut, Peter McGhee, Michael Haas, Bob Tritten, Mark Longstroth, Brad Baughman, Carlos Garcia, Karen Powers and Nikki Rothwell.
Dr. Isaacs’ work is funded in part by MSU’s AgBioResearch.
