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Fruit Fly

Queensland Fruit Fly

Pest Management – Queensland Fruit Fly

Many residents enjoy fresh fruit from their gardens, but the presence of fruit fly creates a significant risk for all nearby fruit trees and susceptible vegetables (such as tomatoes).

If you are in the Buloke Shire and find fruit fly larvae in your produce, please contact Agriculture Victoria on 136 186

How Fruit Flies Ruin Your Harvest

Fruit fly larvae (maggots) turn ripening fruit and vegetables into a soft, inedible mess. The damage occurs when the adult female lays her eggs directly into the flesh of the produce. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the fruit, causing it to rot and drop to the ground.

An outbreak can start with a single fly. In just six months, one female can lay 500 to 800 eggs. The flies develop and reproduce rapidly; in summer, they emerge, feed, and mate within just two to four days, and eggs hatch in six to eight days. This rapid reproduction means that a single fruit fly can be the source of 700,000 flies in one season alone.

Help keep Buloke Shire fruit fly free

Fruit flies cause devastating damage to both commercial crops and home gardens. While commercial growers implement stringent control strategies on their properties, they cannot manage outbreaks occurring in residential areas. That crucial role falls to every gardener.

How to Detect Infestation:

You should regularly inspect your own fruit and vegetables for larvae. Cut produce open to confirm the presence of maggots. Be particularly vigilant with common fruit fly host plants such as:

peach
apricot
plum
nectarine
orange
lemon
grapefruit
avocado
apple
pear
loquat
quince
tomato
chilli
capsicum
grapes

Prevention: Year-Round Action is Key

Fruit fly activity is not limited to specific seasons. If you have host fruit trees on your property, implement these management strategies to protect your garden and the community:

Prune for Management: Keep trees at a manageable height to make picking all the fruit easier and allow for effective netting, spraying, and baiting.
Harvest Timely: Pick fruit as it ripens, ensuring no fruit is left on the tree to fall to the ground.
Dispose of Unwanted Fruit Safely: Immediately collect all fallen fruit. Seal any unwanted or infested produce in a plastic bag and leave it in the sun for 5–7 days to kill any maggots (known as solarisation). The bagged contents can then be placed in your normal rubbish bin. As an alternative, you can microwave small quantities of fruit.
Do Not Compost: Never place infested fruit into your compost bin.
Extend Treatment to All Host Plants: Apply these same disposal methods to unwanted fruit and vegetables from other susceptible host plants.
Implement Control Methods: Consider using baiting, cover spraying, and trapping methods, which are available at most garden and hardware shops, as well as local chemical suppliers.
Isolate Your Fruit: Protect your produce using physical barriers such as fine netting, sleeves, or bags.
Remove Unmanaged Trees: If you lack the means to properly care for and manage your fruit trees, consider removing them.
Communal Effort: Encourage your neighbours to manage their host plants, too. Consider helping each other out, especially if you or they are away for long periods.