Winter

• Males become active in late winter and early spring when they begin to mate. This is the time to monitor with fruit fly traps.
• Prune trees to a manageable height for ease of fruit picking and netting
• Replace unwanted fruit fly host trees with non-host plans
• Pick up fallen fruit

Remember: In the winter the risk of fruit fly is lower but winter fruits can provide a food source for overwintering fruit flies. These include apples, pears, quinces and pomegranates left hanging on trees and ripe winter citrus such as oranges, mandarins and grapefruit. Fruit fly may hibernate in citrus trees throughout winter.

Spring

• Remove fruit fly host plants if you are not going to control fruit fly in your garden
• Design your vegetable garden layout and cropping cycles so that fruit fly populations don’t build up
• Set up traps to monitor for fruit fly and check traps weekly
• Pick and dispose of any excess ripe citrus especially grapefruit and late season oranges
• Pick up and dispose of any fallen loquats
• Spray high risk fruit if appropriate and always follow label instructions.

Remember: In spring high risk fruits are late season citrus such as grapefruit and early ripening hosts such as loquats.

Summer

• Net your vegetable garden or bag individual fruit.
• Pick up fallen fruit everyday
• Check tomatoes and fruit for sting marks
• Heat treat fallen and infested fruit and vegetables to kill Queensland fruit fly maggots.
• Continue to trap and monitor fruit fly population levels weekly
• Spray high risk fruit if appropriate and always follow label instructions.

Remember: In summer high risk fruits are stone fruit such as cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and plums. High risk vegetables are tomatoes, capsicums and chillies.

Autumn

• Pick up any fallen fruit to break the fruit fly lifecycle
• Heat treat fallen and infested fruit to fill the fruit fly maggots
• Continue to monitor for fruit fly and check traps weekly
• Continue to spray high risk fruit if appropriate and always follow label instructions.

Remember: In autumn high risk fruits are pome fruits such as apples, pears and quinces, early citrus such as mandarins. Other fruit includes pomegranates and ornamental fruiting plants such as fejoa.

This information was sourced from the Season calendar of backyard jobs by the Goulburn Murray Valley Regional Fruit Fly Group.

A note about heat treatment: Treat infected fruit by microwaving, freezing or placing the fruit in a sealed black plastic bag and leaving in the sun for at least seven days. The fruit must be disposed of in the rubbish bin, not in the compost or in green waste.

Harcourt Valley Fruit Fly Action Group has developed an Emergency Outbreak Plan which provides a step-by-step plan in the event of an outbreak of Queensland fruit fly.