Joanne Whalen, Extension IPM Specialist; jwhalen@udel.edu
Spotted Wing Drosophila continues to pose a serious threat to small fruit grown in our region. I plan to start trapping by mid-May in a few blueberry and grape locations. As you will see on the following links, researchers working with this insect are now recommending using yeast and sugar baits versus apple cider vinegar in traps. Traps only give an idea of the presence or absence of SWD in an area, but are not good predictors of population sizes and trap captures do not always occur before fruit infestation. Therefore, preventative spray programs are being recommended in states to our south. They are recommending that growers time treatments to host susceptibility (ripening, meaning fruit that is beginning to color, and ripe fruit) rather than to trap captures. Please see the following link from North Carolina for more information on monitoring and management: http://strawberries.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/04/more-on-spotted-wing-drosophila-monitoring-how-many-traps-should-growers-use/.