Spotted wing Drosophila statewide monitoring reports start next week

Traps are going up this week in all major fruit producing counties to monitor for spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) in 2015. No flies have been caught so far in our earliest traps in southwest Michigan.

Spotted wing Drosophila trap baited with commercial lure. Photo credit: Karen Powers, MSU
Spotted wing Drosophila trap baited with commercial lure. Photo credit: Karen Powers, MSU

Michigan State University Extension fruit personnel, who will be monitoring more than 120 different locations this season, are setting up the 2015 Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) Monitoring Network this week. Counties included in the 2015 trapping network will be Allegan, Antrim, Benzie, Berrien, Genesee, Grand Traverse, Ingham, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Kent, Lapeer, Leelanau, Livingston, Macomb, Mecosta, Montcalm, Oakland, Oceana, Ottawa and Van Buren.

All traps in the network will be baited with commercially available lures and placed in susceptible crop fields or orchards – or in a location adjacent to susceptible crops – in areas where SWD infestation has been recorded in the past. Weekly reports will include the number of male and female SWD captured by county and crop.

For more information on this pest, please visit the MSU Spotted Wing Drosophila website.

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