Fruit Fly Trap - commercial type

Mark

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Count as of today: approximatley 60 :assassin:
Holy fruit fly assassin Batman!

Seriously, 60 is good work and goes to show how many are around. Are you able to gauge it's effectiveness according to how much of your produce is getting stung or is it too early to tell?
 

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Holy fruit fly assassin Batman!

Seriously, 60 is good work and goes to show how many are around. Are you able to gauge it's effectiveness according to how much of your produce is getting stung or is it too early to tell?

Yeah i'm pretty happy with the catch.

Good question, my prize jelepino crop was devastated previously as you know, but looks like i have a second chance as the plant is getting some new fruit and plenty of it, all baby size, ... and looks like i have a bumper crop of tomatoes, i'm looking forward to some good produce from the garden.

pic of my out of control garden, a few hours ago...
shackers.net_images_photos_garden14092013.jpg
 

Mark

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That's a nice garden everything looks healthy. And that's the real shame with fruit fly because you do everything right to grow a great crop and along comes fruit fly to ruin all that work.
 

steve h

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That's a nice garden everything looks healthy. And that's the real shame with fruit fly because you do everything right to grow a great crop and along comes fruit fly to ruin all that work.
not sure where on the forum to put this Mark but it a link to organic fruit fly control if your interested
 

Mark

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Nice find Steve H - yeah, I reckon the vid fits perfectly into this thread actually. :thumbsup:

Her four points are valid but are they practical? Others may not agree but, for me the jury's still out and my reasons why are:
  • The male trap - At the end of the day it annoys me that it's a gimmicky notification tool and not a control measure. Surely, a gardener knows if they have fruit fly in their area and if they had fruit fly last season it's likely they'll be back again next August. Why use a trap to monitor?
  • Eco-naturalure is hell expensive! Fruit Fly Trap - commercial type I'm not sold on the effectiveness and I've read/been told it's not that great - to be fair though I haven't tried it. And, I wouldn't spray it on my brickwork either :)
  • Bagging - bagging fruit like tomatoes etc is a PITA and totally impractical. I've tried this method over and over and it always ends in lost fruit, rotten fruit in the bag, and ripped bags. For the effort, I don't think it's very good.
  • Netting - Full tree or plant netting seems to be the best way to go IMHO. My neighbour uses full tree netting effectively on all their stone fruit starting after the flowers have finished. The only issue is you have to keep the trees relatively small enough to net. I've started planting more fruit trees of the same in the view to keeping them smaller for easier netting rather than having one big tree. Getting cheaper netting is another thing I'm currently looking into - the purpose made tree netting for fruit fly is also very expensive.
  • Other products - Still, it's difficult to fully net all vegetables or tomato plants etc. So I'm going to keep experimenting with other products like Cera Trap Easy and cheap DIY Fruit Fly trap A bunch of "set and forget" traps would be the best solution for me (if it worked).
  • Fruit fly resistant plants - There are many plants which rarely get stung by fruit fly so it pays to grow them. Plants/trees like citrus, fruit and veg which ripen in winter, cherry tomatoes, etc.
So yep, good video but I think a better plan is needed to control this miserable pest organically anyway. Sadly, pesticides actually do a great job but I'm loathed to spray my vegetables and fruit with anything as potent as that stuff. The quest to organically control fruit fly continues...
 

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Thanks for the video steve h , it looks like the same wicks that I've got. I don't have any other stuff at the moment, just the wicks to trap the males.

I bought another trap on Sunday, and got 10 fruit flies in 24 hours.

My tomato crop is nearly ready so we'll get some idea how effective it is. Next step is to build a bubble over the entire yard to control the environment - just joking
 

Mark

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count:

24 in two days with the new trap
plus a total of 84 currently in the old trap :eek:
Hopefully, those numbers are keeping them away from your tomatoes - time will tell hey.

I'm going to start setting up a few traps soon with the Cera liquid and see how it goes. In about 4-6 weeks I'll have larger capsicums and also eggplants which are a fruit fly favourite so I'm going to have to control them somehow.
 

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update, I must have a couple hundred fruitfly in each trap now, I haven't counted for a month or so because every time I go to open the container there's live ones in there so I don't want to let them out. There was even one trying to get in.

Tomato crop is very successful, I have been taking a few off every day. There's some that have big grub holes? but not many. I have been dusting the plants aswell.

The Jelepinos and Chillies look healthy but aren't quite ready yet, so fingers crossed the fruitfly don't get them this time.
 

Mark

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That's great to hear the traps are working! :cheers:

I haven't bothered setting up any more of mine yet because I haven't seen much sign of fruit fly at all. All our stone fruit are ripening beautifully without nets or traps and our vegies like capsicums and tomatoes etc are all good!
 

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I accidentally stumbled on a small retail/wholesale nursery the other day whilst trying to locate Kale seeds locally. He sells fruit fly traps made by an entomologist on the Gold Coast hinterland. I live on 4.5 acres and he recommended two traps to cover the area the fruit trees are located in which is about seventy metres across. They cost $4 each. I will be trying them to see how they go this season and I will post comments and a revue as time goes by. If you are local the Nursery is Pro Plants, 80 Robb Road, Morayfield. Ph 54985592. He ended up giving me a whole bunch of seeds for free and a bucket of lemons. He will only be in business for twelve months before becoming a grey nomad.
 

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welp, it's not looking good. My Jelepinos are still getting destroyed by Fruit fly. As soon as they start turning red they get hit. I'm thinking i might need to put some kind of nets over the plant.

There must be a couple hundred Fruit fly in each of the two traps, but the females must still be mating :(
 

Mark

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I accidentally stumbled on a small retail/wholesale nursery the other day whilst trying to locate Kale seeds locally. He sells fruit fly traps made by an entomologist on the Gold Coast hinterland. I live on 4.5 acres and he recommended two traps to cover the area the fruit trees are located in which is about seventy metres across. They cost $4 each. I will be trying them to see how they go this season and I will post comments and a revue as time goes by. If you are local the Nursery is Pro Plants, 80 Robb Road, Morayfield. Ph 54985592. He ended up giving me a whole bunch of seeds for free and a bucket of lemons. He will only be in business for twelve months before becoming a grey nomad.
@armysnail Chris, I merged your thread into this one and moved it to General gardening - thought it might better here.


welp, it's not looking good. My Jelepinos are still getting destroyed by Fruit fly. As soon as they start turning red they get hit. I'm thinking i might need to put some kind of nets over the plant.
I found a fruit fly in one of my nectarines also (spoke too soon) :oops:
 

armysnail

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Hi guys. I found a trap this week from a nursery in Morayfield. It costs $4 and was designed by an entomologist on the Gold Coast. I can't find the brochure but when I do I will post the info here. One trap seems to cover an average backyard and lasts for six months. It attracts the male so none left for breeding. I was told by the nurseryman who did the trials it took about two weeks to stop catching male fruit flys in any numbers. I will be testing them this summer.
 

Mark

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Hi guys. I found a trap this week from a nursery in Morayfield. It costs $4 and was designed by an entomologist on the Gold Coast. I can't find the brochure but when I do I will post the info here. One trap seems to cover an average backyard and lasts for six months. It attracts the male so none left for breeding. I was told by the nurseryman who did the trials it took about two weeks to stop catching male fruit flys in any numbers. I will be testing them this summer.
Looking forward to seeing your results! It's such a shame to have an otherwise flourishing and healthy plant with great fruit only to be ruined from the inside by fruit fly - netting is fine but there are drawbacks like pollination issues, access, cost, etc...
 

armysnail

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That was my main issue as well as the fact the Mango tree is about 7 to 8 metres high. At least there are no possums and so far no fruit bats.
 

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we get Mediterranean fruit fly over here in WA - I use a concoction of 1 cup brown sugar, a table spoon of vegemite and a tablespoon of yeast and a litre of water ..mix it all up and use about 5cm in the bottom of each my homemade traps.... I hang one in each tree and top them up as the liquid evaporates....
seems to work pretty good over here
 

Mark

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we get Mediterranean fruit fly over here in WA - I use a concoction of 1 cup brown sugar, a table spoon of vegemite and a tablespoon of yeast and a litre of water ..mix it all up and use about 5cm in the bottom of each my homemade traps.... I hang one in each tree and top them up as the liquid evaporates....
seems to work pretty good over here
I might give your formula a go myself as we actually get a type of Mediterranean fruit fly here as well as the QLD fruit fly. It might work on both...
 
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