Spotted Wing Drosophila Update

The summer is approaching half over at this point and spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) populations should be steadily increasing across the state, including most berry farms, peach orchards, day neutral strawberry plantings, vineyards and wild host areas (mulberry, elderberry, pokeweed, etc.). For those operations not actively managing their crop with insecticides or other means, the SWD adult numbers can be very high resulting in severe fruit damage.

If you have soft berries or berries that appear to be “leaking” juice and aren’t sure what might be causing the damage, try picking some healthy ripe berries and give them the salt water test to see if any SWD larvae are inside.  Here’s how:

https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/1/8311/files/2017/04/SWD-salttesthandout-updated-pnd335.pdf

If you are looking for insecticide options to treat your berries, take a look at the chart on this factsheet:

https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/1/8311/files/2018/02/SWD_Ohio_handoutV17-wlzzar.pdf

Starting in June, SWD monitoring sites were established in 25 counties.  For those sites reporting their trap activity, the approximate trends over the past month (July) are listed below:

Spotted wing Drosophila trends across the state.

 

 

 

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