Fruit Fly?

Needle99

Needle99

Hi All,
 
So as my first superhots started to ripen (TS Cardi Yellow) I noticed a few brown spots on some.
 
Hoped all was well and it was just a discolouration.
 
All that had the spots have now rotted prior to ripening, pic below.

 
I picked this morning and a maggot (larvae) of some kind has come out after an hour of being in the plastic bag. Little bugger jumps too.
Have a heap of the TS cardi pods I will need to destroy.
 
Looks like Fruit fly to me, which we get here in Brisbane a lot. Your thoughts?

 
Also does this spot on a Reaper look like the same kind of thing having been stung, or just how they ripen?

 
Before I start with fruit fly traps/baits just want a quick confirmation...
 
Talk to Neil from THSC he has a product to deal with fruit fly and can confirm what your pest is. It looks like the fruit fly maggots I have seen..
 
Thanks :-)
I  went ahead and assumed it was, and have now deployed a FF trap and organic bait.
I see on THSC website some info on FF so will investigate further tonight. I have seen recipes for vegemite/soap in bottles for homemade traps to.
Will deploy lots of things me thinks.....
 
Needle99 said:
Thanks :-)
I  went ahead and assumed it was, and have now deployed a FF trap and organic bait.
I see on THSC website some info on FF so will investigate further tonight. I have seen recipes for vegemite/soap in bottles for homemade traps to.
Will deploy lots of things me thinks.....
Click to expand...
 
Margaritas work great. I used to culture and feed fruit flies to my dart frogs. I couldn't set a margarita down for 5 seconds without 2 or 3 floating around in it and these where flightless .
 
Definitely the dreaded Queenlsand Fruit Fly!
I lost a heap of fruit to the little bastards last year, minimal damage so far this year though.
Surprised the hell out of me when I saw one of the little larvae jump too.
The best way to not have them is prevention, I think it's the QLD govt that has some info about how to set your garden/yard/whatever up to minimise QFF.
Unfortunately all those affected pods you'll have to trash.
Some people tie those little jewellery bags around each chilli, takes ages to do that though if you have a lot of plants.
There are also some very heavy nasty chemicals that will kill/control them, but I wouldn't use those on edible plants or around pets, children, and any human or likeable living thing at all actually.
Chemical free or natural methods have varying results, but try them out, might work for you!
 
Have trashed 15 pods so far. Am checking them all each morning and night.
Just hoping there were only a few about and only minimal pods (of what is left) were stung.
 
Will be such a shame to throw away 30+ reaper pods....
Have to hope I at least get to try 1 of each pod.
 
D3monic said:
 
Margaritas work great. I used to culture and feed fruit flies to my dart frogs. I couldn't set a margarita down for 5 seconds without 2 or 3 floating around in it and these where flightless .
Click to expand...
Alcoholic frogs ;) .... Jumping into your margaritas....
We have a lot of those Fungus Gnats here too. They absolutely love red wine.
Until I started researching these flies, I called them fruit flies also.....
 
Bag those babies!
 
Exclusion is the way to go.
 
Baits/traps are a fruitless fight. Too great a number of the bastage fruit fly in Brissy.
 
As mentioned, organza bags (jewellery bags) work well for bagging single berries or small clusters of fruit. Else, use fine netting like tulle to cover the entire plant. PITA but really no more than rigging up baits/traps and tending to them.
 
Make sure you bag fruit early! I.e, when the berry is just beginning to form. FF don't miss a beat and sting pretty early on during formation. Look very closely, you'll see the sting well before the berry starts to mature and/or starts to rot.
 
But there is good news too...
 
Thankfully the FF bastages bugger off around mid autumn until around mid spring and give us some peace. Start plants in winter (or overwinter plants) so they'll be ready to produce come spring. Usually one can get away without having to bag the first flush of fruit if the plant is ready, willing and able to produce at the first sniff of spring. JUST BE VIGILANT IN KEEPING AN EYE OUT FOR STINGS! Do not wait for the discovery of a second sting to commence bagging.
 
Small fruiting varieties (e.g. Pequins, Tepins, Wild Brazil, etc) are good to grow. FF don't appear to be all that fond of 'em... at least in the presence of larger fruiting types.
 
Thanks Gassy....
 
Not sure why I had not thought of exclusion, still in shock of them being attacked I guess....
Have grown cayennes/Thais/birdseye and Habbies before but never had them attacked. Maybe the volume and size of the trees (or just timing with all the mangoes around)
I have bags over my mangoes to protect them.....
 
Will visit a $2 shop today and grab some bags to cover what is there....And keep fingers crossed.
 
Thanks for recommendations on smaller varieties. Will need to look for some seeds of those varieties and will add to growlist....
 
With all the varieties I have just started now, should end up with plenty being ready for Spring (or so I hope).......
 
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