Fruit flies

[chancethegardener]

I have a serious problem with fruit flies. Some of the slightly cracked tomatoes are being attacked by fruit flies at the stage of ripening. Basically, when the flesh of the tomato is open to air (even a tiny hole), fruit flies come and lay eggs inside. In a few days, eggs become larvae and the scene is not only disgusting but also there is not a tomato left to eat. Has anybody experienced this before? What should I do?

[jsvand5]

I pick mine as soon as I see some cracking. Down here in FL you can't really let them totally ripen on the vine. If you don't have many plants you can try bagging the fruits. That should help with the flies and the stink bugs that should be showing up soon.

[barkeater]

You may not have the run of the mill fruit fly. If you are seeing lots of little larvae, it could be the new pest called the Spotted Winged Drosophila(sp?), also known as the Cherry Vinegar Fly. It hit the west coast and then Florida a couple years ago. Unlike normal fruit flies it doesn't have to wait until fruit cracks. It can pierce the skin and lay eggs. The little maggots hatch in only a couple days. It usually likes small fruits like berries and cherries but can attack tomatoes.

[chancethegardener]

Thanks jsvand5. What kind of material do you use for bagging? Is there a commercial product for this?
Note: I started this topic in general discussion by mistake. Could admins move this to "garden disease" forum, if appropriate, please?

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by barkeater

You may not have the run of the mill fruit fly. If you are seeing lots of little larvae, it could be the new pest called the Spotted Winged Drosophila(sp?), also known as the Cherry Vinegar Fly. It hit the west coast and then Florida a couple years ago. Unlike normal fruit flies it doesn't have to wait until fruit cracks. It can pierce the skin and lay eggs. The little maggots hatch in only a couple days. It usually likes small fruits like berries and cherries but can attack tomatoes.

I had the tiny maggots in my blackberries last year. UC posted this info on them:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/EXOTIC/drosophila.html

which says, basically, there are no effective organic controls. They recommend vinegar in a container for monitoring and Spinosad every 7-10 days for some control (and only if you can spray before they start laying eggs).

I'm thinking I may need to cut back the blackberries, and put fine netting over the raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries (but then how will the pollinators get to the strawberries?).

[jsvand5]

Originally Posted by chancethegardener

Thanks jsvand5. What kind of material do you use for bagging? Is there a commercial product for this?
Note: I started this topic in general discussion by mistake. Could admins move this to "garden disease" forum, if appropriate, please?

I don't bag mine. I just pick them when they just start to turn from green to red and before any rain is coming. I give up on getting any good fruit once the stink bugs get bad.

[chancethegardener]

It looks like I will sacrifice quite a few tomatoes because of these flies, at least the very first fruits on the plants since these generally have some kind of crack. I sprayed couple of tomatoes with Safer organic-based bug spray in advance (they are within the ripening stage) but don't think it will help.