Pest management in orchards

How to counter the Q Fly menace (part 2)

Strategies (continued from last month): The most widely employed strategy at this point is to spray, however, there are other options and they include the following.
Splash baiting
A strategy called ‘splash baiting’ involves a yeast attractant tied to an insecticide that is sprayed only on the lower leaves of the fruit trees. 
This has been shown to be up to 90 per cent effective and fruit is not directly sprayed.
Pheromone traps
Pheromone traps are often used as a monitoring tool where the number of insects trapped are used as an indicator of spray requirements. 
However, there is one trapping technology that has proven so effective that many growers now use it as a primary control strategy. I am referring to the NTS product, Fly Bye™.
Fly Bye was developed by a researcher who spent many years experimenting with combinations of essential oils from native plants. 
The researcher eventually developed a formula that is such a powerful attractant of the male fruit fly that the besotted insects can simply not resist the lust driven urges. 
Hopeful males have been seen to travel hundreds of metres to the baited traps. In fact, when we originally trialled this formula, we were trapping multiple males in the midst of an industrial estate.
This strategy simply involves pouring a little of the liquid formula into plastic, hanging containers (Fly Bye Traps™), which are hung in the fruit trees at the rate of five per hectare. 
The traps need to be emptied and recharged from time to time but they have proven to be a remarkably effective tool to remove the male from the equation. 
Using Fly Bye as a primary control strategy
 The best approach is to set the traps in late winter/early spring so that they will pull the males from the equation as soon as they become active. 
This is a proactive strategy, and as such, it is essential to get in before the problems begin. 
If you would like to order Fly Bye, please contact NTS for your closest distributor: phone
 + 61 7 5472 9900 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Fruit bags
Cloth and paper fruit bags can be tied around the fruit as soon as it has formed. 
This is only applicable to home gardeners or high value fruit as it is often too labour intensive for commercial production. 
Waxed paper bags can also help keep out codling moth but the reusable cloth bags also offer protection against fruit bats and possums. 
Tree training is essential because trees must be kept at a height where the fruit can be easily accessed. 
Espalier is the way to go if you want easy management and harvesting, and is worth the effort.
Chickens
Chickens are worth their weight in gold in an orchard and it is really time for more growers to realise their potential. 
A chicken can eat thousands of weed seeds in a day. Weed seeds can lay dormant in the soil for up to 70 years awaiting the right conditions to trigger their germination. Chickens deprive them of that choice and reduce your need for herbicides. 
More importantly, in relation to Qld Fruit Fly, these eagle eyed rovers will effectively convert maggot filled, fallen fruit into high quality eggs with almost as much value as the lost fruit. 
When the adult fruit fly emerges from the pupae it is trapped on the ground for 24 hours after emergence while the wings harden. If you have chickens present at that time they will rapidly identify this vulnerability and will fight each other to reduce your fruit fly problem. 
They will even scratch out the pupae that have yet to hatch when they realise that this delectable snack may be present. 
Chickens can now be easily managed with portable, electric chicken wire and they can provide another income stream while reducing chemical costs. 
This is the essence of a synergistic, sustainable approach and growers are advised to trial a small area to discover the potential for themselves.
Colour attraction
Insects love colour and their preference varies from species to species. 
Queensland Fruit Fly favour the colour blue, and if we are intent on working with nature rather than against her, we should be utilising this ‘understanding’. 
In this case it is as simple as depositing blue painted, Styrofoam balls on the ground and in the trees. These balls should be covered in non-drying glue. They will need replacing from time to time because they will be so encrusted with both male and female QLD fly.
 
For more information, see Tree Fruit April 2014

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