Fruit Fly On Dragon Fruit

[steve28]

Hi,

Anyone have any experience of controlling fruit fly in a cost effective way on dragon fruit.

Thanks

[zzaa09]

Hi,

Anyone have any experience of controlling fruit fly in a cost effective way on dragon fruit.

Thanks

Geckos.

[jandtaa]

Hi Steve

some info on organic controls discussed here; insect pest thread and also here OISAT

cheers for now J

[steve28]

Hi Steve

some info on organic controls discussed here; insect pest thread and also here OISAT

cheers for now J

Hi Jandtaa

Many thanks for the info, will be making the bait today, and will post results.

Have already started using traps with fruit fly attractent but beleive this only attracts males.

Cheers Steve

[steve28]

Hi Steve

some info on organic controls discussed here; insect pest thread and also here OISAT

cheers for now J

Hi Jandtaa

Many thanks for the info, will be making the bait today, and will post results.

Have already started using traps with fruit fly attractent but beleive this only attracts males.

Cheers Steve

Hi,

317 Poles approx 800-900 dragon fruit plants

Think i know when i'm on a loser.

Followed the links and checked out a few more web sites, basically, water, urine, sugar and yeast, and also found many home made variations of fruit fly traps, plastic bottles with holes or funnels inserted, containers with cling film and a few holes plus many more.

Tried out these with first with fruit fly attractant, why waiting for the yeast brew to be ready, fruit fly attractent very good but only works on male flies, guy at the shop said to mix equal part attractent with marathon pesticide, very good advice if your selling attractant at 80baht for 10ml, however no wish to use nasty chemicals or make the attractant seller very rich, baited the traps with a few drops of attractent plus an inch or so of water and a few drops of washing up liquid (to break up the surface tension of the water so fruit flys drown easily) this worked very well for male flies, however the most efficient trap by far was a simple plastic bowl as used in thai toilets set on the ground, with no cover, each trap bagging in the hundreds by the day. Did try putting some fruit in, which worked better, unfortunately it also worked on the spiders and beetles, so stopped the fruit except for the traps that are off the ground.

Also plant hygeine it seems very important, we have no plant rubbish lying about, any prunings or spoiled fruit goes straight to the compost bin, even the flowers as they die off are picked and composted.

Seems the fruit fly likes rotten decoposing fruit for breeding, then laying it's eggs (approx 500) in the fruit, which in turn hatch out and drop to the ground to pupate before starting the cycle again.( about 1 week) Hence not wanting to kill the predatory spiders and such underneath the fruit.

Had high hopes for the bait to attract the females, so i could blitz them. 10 traps for a weelk netted 3 fruit flies in total,

A few more batches with slight variations same result, it does not work on these fruit flies, and killing males can only be part of an overall stratedgy, dissapointed.

Add to the fact neighbours on either side leave spoiled and split fruit to rot on the plant (One says it's to get the fruit flies to have somewhere to go and leave the rest of the fruit alone) same neighbour has some large mature fruit trees that are not harvested, hunderds of kilo's of rotten fruit lying about, much drops on our land by the dragon fruit, which we remove but much more on there side. Other side the same, fruit out of reach because of unpractical planting left to rot. Some people dump pick up loads of spoiled fruit along the side of the road. Chantaburi area everybody reaches for the weedkiller as soon as anything starts growing, even alongside the road. no teams of thais with brushcutters here, spray the lot, Take that all you little predatory spiders and such like, plus the occasional spray with chemical pesticides to keep the predators under control and who cares about pollinators.

Fruit fly contol doesn't seem possible to me if it's only yourself doing it, other countries have goverment intervention, and many forms of control to be used with each other, however it seems they are not available here or are to costly, so can't beat it will go round it, bagging what fruit is possible (gives inferior meat quality so i'm told) and processing the rest into deliscous dragon fruit paste, wifes just made the first batch and it's addictive.

so my advice to the fruit fly, if your starting out in life and looking for pastures a plenty to raise a family, come here to Chantaburi, you will find ideal conditions and very few predators to eat your babies.

Cheers to all steve

[soidog2]

Hi Steve

some info on organic controls discussed here; insect pest thread and also here OISAT

cheers for now J

Hi Jandtaa

Many thanks for the info, will be making the bait today, and will post results.

Have already started using traps with fruit fly attractent but beleive this only attracts males.

Cheers Steve

Hi,

317 Poles approx 800-900 dragon fruit plants

Think i know when i'm on a loser.

Followed the links and checked out a few more web sites, basically, water, urine, sugar and yeast, and also found many home made variations of fruit fly traps, plastic bottles with holes or funnels inserted, containers with cling film and a few holes plus many more.

Tried out these with first with fruit fly attractant, why waiting for the yeast brew to be ready, fruit fly attractent very good but only works on male flies, guy at the shop said to mix equal part attractent with marathon pesticide, very good advice if your selling attractant at 80baht for 10ml, however no wish to use nasty chemicals or make the attractant seller very rich, baited the traps with a few drops of attractent plus an inch or so of water and a few drops of washing up liquid (to break up the surface tension of the water so fruit flys drown easily) this worked very well for male flies, however the most efficient trap by far was a simple plastic bowl as used in thai toilets set on the ground, with no cover, each trap bagging in the hundreds by the day. Did try putting some fruit in, which worked better, unfortunately it also worked on the spiders and beetles, so stopped the fruit except for the traps that are off the ground.

Also plant hygeine it seems very important, we have no plant rubbish lying about, any prunings or spoiled fruit goes straight to the compost bin, even the flowers as they die off are picked and composted.

Seems the fruit fly likes rotten decoposing fruit for breeding, then laying it's eggs (approx 500) in the fruit, which in turn hatch out and drop to the ground to pupate before starting the cycle again.( about 1 week) Hence not wanting to kill the predatory spiders and such underneath the fruit.

Had high hopes for the bait to attract the females, so i could blitz them. 10 traps for a weelk netted 3 fruit flies in total,

A few more batches with slight variations same result, it does not work on these fruit flies, and killing males can only be part of an overall stratedgy, dissapointed.

Add to the fact neighbours on either side leave spoiled and split fruit to rot on the plant (One says it's to get the fruit flies to have somewhere to go and leave the rest of the fruit alone) same neighbour has some large mature fruit trees that are not harvested, hunderds of kilo's of rotten fruit lying about, much drops on our land by the dragon fruit, which we remove but much more on there side. Other side the same, fruit out of reach because of unpractical planting left to rot. Some people dump pick up loads of spoiled fruit along the side of the road. Chantaburi area everybody reaches for the weedkiller as soon as anything starts growing, even alongside the road. no teams of thais with brushcutters here, spray the lot, Take that all you little predatory spiders and such like, plus the occasional spray with chemical pesticides to keep the predators under control and who cares about pollinators.

Fruit fly contol doesn't seem possible to me if it's only yourself doing it, other countries have goverment intervention, and many forms of control to be used with each other, however it seems they are not available here or are to costly, so can't beat it will go round it, bagging what fruit is possible (gives inferior meat quality so i'm told) and processing the rest into deliscous dragon fruit paste, wifes just made the first batch and it's addictive.

so my advice to the fruit fly, if your starting out in life and looking for pastures a plenty to raise a family, come here to Chantaburi, you will find ideal conditions and very few predators to eat your babies.

Cheers to all steve

Just wondering , has anyone found a better organic solution for fruit fly control.

Thank you