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Arganger
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15 Sep 2018, 11:12 am

Any ways, and be creative about it, to manage Spotted Wing Drosophila without killing them?


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naturalplastic
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15 Sep 2018, 5:38 pm

Could you rephrase the question? So that humans can understand what you are asking?

Are you dreaming about breeding a new strain of fruit flies with spotted wings?

Or is it that you inherited a herd of fruit flies that are already of a spotted wing variety, and that you wanna know how to be a proper fly wrangler?

You might wanna make tiny branding irons so that fly rustlers don't steal them! :lol:



Trogluddite
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15 Sep 2018, 9:45 pm

Encourage your neighbours to grow lots of fruit so that they choose to dine somewhere else! :wink:

The Royal Horticultural Society (link) suggests nets to keep them off the plants (less than 1mm mesh), and there are some instructions for building DIY traps in one of the links on that page. The DIY traps do kill the flies, but it'll give you an idea what lures you might use. The advice there about "garden hygiene" is good too.

They are however, an invasive pest species, only spread from Japan to Europe and the USA quite recently, and can damage fruit which species native to those areas cannot. Like most insect pests, they reproduce in huge numbers precisely because a high mortality rate is normal. If you keep them off your plants, they'll either starve to death anyway, or will just infest someone else's plants (possibly a "someone else" who will kill them with pesticides.) If you try to use "decoy" fruit to lead them away, they'll just breed faster, leaving you with an even worse problem to deal with.

Without knowing the reason that you'd prefer not to kill them, there's not much more I can think of to suggest.


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Arganger
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15 Sep 2018, 10:01 pm

Trogluddite wrote:
Encourage your neighbours to grow lots of fruit so that they choose to dine somewhere else! :wink:

The Royal Horticultural Society (link) suggests nets to keep them off the plants (less than 1mm mesh), and there are some instructions for building DIY traps in one of the links on that page. The DIY traps do kill the flies, but it'll give you an idea what lures you might use. The advice there about "garden hygiene" is good too.

They are however, an invasive pest species, only spread from Japan to Europe and the USA quite recently, and can damage fruit which species native to those areas cannot. Like most insect pests, they reproduce in huge numbers precisely because a high mortality rate is normal. If you keep them off your plants, they'll either starve to death anyway, or will just infest someone else's plants (possibly a "someone else" who will kill them with pesticides.) If you try to use "decoy" fruit to lead them away, they'll just breed faster, leaving you with an even worse problem to deal with.

Without knowing the reason that you'd prefer not to kill them, there's not much more I can think of to suggest.


For the first one, unfortunately I cannot because my blackberry plant is in my church's community garden for the food pantry. Some of the other suggestions may be useful.

My reasons for not wanting to kill them may be considered weak, but here it goes.
1. I think they are cute
2. I have a soft spot for bugs
3. I won't even kill mosquitoes


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Arganger
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15 Sep 2018, 10:05 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
Could you rephrase the question? So that humans can understand what you are asking?

Are you dreaming about breeding a new strain of fruit flies with spotted wings?

Or is it that you inherited a herd of fruit flies that are already of a spotted wing variety, and that you wanna know how to be a proper fly wrangler?

You might wanna make tiny branding irons so that fly rustlers don't steal them! :lol:


Spotted Wing Drosophila is a bright brownish-orange fruit fly, males have spots on the wings, females don't.
Females can lay eggs in still developing fruit, unlike native fruit flies that cannot pierce the skin of healthy fruit.
They are native to japan, and have only been in north america for about ten years.


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Diagnosed autistic level 2, ODD, anxiety, dyspraxic, essential tremors, depression (Doubted), CAPD, hyper mobility syndrome
Suspected; PTSD (Treated, as my counselor did notice), possible PCOS, PMDD, Learning disabilities (Sure of it, unknown what they are), possibly something wrong with immune system (Sick about as much as I'm not) Possible EDS- hyper mobility type (Will be getting tested, suggested by doctor) dysautonomia


Trogluddite
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15 Sep 2018, 10:44 pm

Arganger wrote:
My reasons for not wanting to kill them may be considered weak

Not weak, conscientious; rather than practical (say, for some ecological reason). I should probably have made clearer that's what I was getting at.


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naturalplastic
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16 Sep 2018, 11:00 am

Arganger wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
Could you rephrase the question? So that humans can understand what you are asking?

Are you dreaming about breeding a new strain of fruit flies with spotted wings?

Or is it that you inherited a herd of fruit flies that are already of a spotted wing variety, and that you wanna know how to be a proper fly wrangler?

You might wanna make tiny branding irons so that fly rustlers don't steal them! :lol:


. Spotted Wing Drosophila is a bright brownish-orange fruit fly, males have spots on the wings, females don't.
Females can lay eggs in still developing fruit, unlike native fruit flies that cannot pierce the skin of healthy fruit.
They are native to japan, and have only been in north america for about ten years.


They sound like they must be invasive pests (they can attack fruit crops in a way that the native fruit flies cant).

Rescuing cute bugs is one thing. But you don't want to aid and abet and invasive pest, do you?



Arganger
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16 Sep 2018, 3:53 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
Arganger wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
Could you rephrase the question? So that humans can understand what you are asking?

Are you dreaming about breeding a new strain of fruit flies with spotted wings?

Or is it that you inherited a herd of fruit flies that are already of a spotted wing variety, and that you wanna know how to be a proper fly wrangler?

You might wanna make tiny branding irons so that fly rustlers don't steal them! :lol:


. Spotted Wing Drosophila is a bright brownish-orange fruit fly, males have spots on the wings, females don't.
Females can lay eggs in still developing fruit, unlike native fruit flies that cannot pierce the skin of healthy fruit.
They are native to japan, and have only been in north america for about ten years.


They sound like they must be invasive pests (they can attack fruit crops in a way that the native fruit flies cant).

Rescuing cute bugs is one thing. But you don't want to aid and abet and invasive pest, do you?


In all honesty, I think invasive animals are completely unavoidable anyway, and humans are way worse as invasive pests but I aid them sometimes and no one complains.


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Diagnosed autistic level 2, ODD, anxiety, dyspraxic, essential tremors, depression (Doubted), CAPD, hyper mobility syndrome
Suspected; PTSD (Treated, as my counselor did notice), possible PCOS, PMDD, Learning disabilities (Sure of it, unknown what they are), possibly something wrong with immune system (Sick about as much as I'm not) Possible EDS- hyper mobility type (Will be getting tested, suggested by doctor) dysautonomia