Maggots in the blackberries -- blech

[bcday]

Before I cut the canes down, I took a baggie of blackberries to a local farmers market and did the salt-water demo there (out of sight of their customers) for some folks that were selling quart baskets of red raspberries. They had never heard of the Spotted Wing Drosophila and were not pleased to see that healthy-looking fruit could have a problem like that.

I didn't ask if I could try it with their raspberries, lol. I never went back and asked if they tried it themselves either. But I'm not buying any!

[Got Worms?]

Somehow I missed this thread back in August. I seemed to remember eating an awful lot of Blackberries, Red Raspberries, and Blueberries back then. There was quite an abundance on the shelves. Now I know why. Wonder if I should make an appointment with the Vet to get wormed? Got Worms?...

[Durgan]

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...-swd.htm#intro

Spotted Wing Drosophila: A New Threat To Tender Fruit And Berry Crops. Completely destroys bush berries. Nobody wants maggots in fruit.

To determine if present put your picked berries in salty water and leave for an hour or so. If you stir or swirl the water around a bit they sink very slowly and you can see them being carried by the current, but they do eventually sink to the bottom. The pest is in NY state and in the Niagara region now ande other places.
The SWD will attack thin-skinned fruit such as raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, apricot, cherry, plum, peach, nectarine, hardy kiwi, elderberry, currant, dogwood, mulberry and sometimes grape.

[bcday]

The maggots in mine didn't actually float on the surface or to the surface. "Floating" really wasn't the best description in my original post. If you stir or swirl the water around a bit they sink very slowly and you can see them being carried by the current, but they do eventually sink to the bottom.

[Durgan]

I tested my raspberries still producing and found no maggots on the one test. New York State is very close to me and if this spotted wing drosophila is present in NYS, then it must be in my area.

[Durgan]

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/spotted...vested_berries

Sampling harvested berries to detect spotted wing Drosophila larvae infestations

[matereater]

My wife just recently found some of these in raspberries that we've been eating for the past 2-3 weeks. Are there any health issues other than the ICK factor ??

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by matereater

My wife just recently found some of these in raspberries that we've been eating for the past 2-3 weeks. Are there any health issues other than the ICK factor ??

Personally, I don't think there is a health factor to be concerned over other than the ick factor. If the infestation is sever the berry is disgustingly mushy and unusable to even put into a container. I am sure I have eaten several and I feel fine so far. If by chance I keel over from them you'll know because I haven't posted here for sometime.

[NS_Gardener]

You've been invated by the Spotted wing drosophila (SWD) introduced into US fron Japan(?) two years ago. the gosh darnoodley things have marched across the US and are destroying fruit crops. typical fruit flies wait until the fruit is over ripe and on the ground before they lay their eggs. The SWD has little scissors on it's backend that slit into fruit as it just coming to ripen, lay their eggs. It's possible for these flies to reproduce MULTIPLE times in just a few short weeks. They have been decimating commercial berry operations across the country.