Around Delaware
Conditions vary across the state. Choose your city below, then describe what’s happening around your home or business.
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Local fruit fly information
Fruit Fly control in Delaware
Learn what to look for around your property, explore your city, and ask about an inspection or a quote.
Fruit Flies in Delaware: what to know
What to note
Where you see fruit flies, how long it has been going on, and anything you’ve already tried are the most useful details to mention.
A useful next step
Ask about an inspection, what treatment would involve, and whether follow-up visits are included. You don’t need to identify the problem yourself before getting in touch.
Local research
Fruit Flies in Delaware: what the public record shows
Before you compare quotes, it helps to know which fruit flies actually live in Delaware, when they are busiest, and what the state figures look like. Everything below links to the agency or university page it came from.
Traps set near Milford from September through December 2011 collected flies that a USDA identifier verified as SWD in January 2012
Spotted wing drosophila confirmed in Delaware
Delaware's first confirmed SWD record means backyard berry, cherry and grape plantings can now produce infested-looking fruit that draws vinegar flies indoors when it is brought into the kitchen.
University of Delaware Cooperative Extension (Weekly Crop Update)"There is no treatment threshold for SWD and acceptable damage varies by market and operation"; "A 7-day spray interval is required to maintain near 0 infestation levels, with tighter intervals when rain events occur."
No treatment threshold, 7-day spray interval
For a Delaware grower or market operator this is why fruit fly pressure is managed by calendar sanitation rather than by waiting for a count to be exceeded.
University of Delaware Cooperative Extension (Weekly Crop Update); article by Kelly Hamby, University of MarylandSoak fruit in salt water at 1 cup salt to 1 gallon water (or 1/4 cup sugar to 4 1/4 cups water) and hold it below the surface for 15 to 60 minutes; harvest intervals shortened to every 2 days and cooling fruit to 32-36 degrees F reduce populations
Salt-float test for larvae in fruit
A Delaware homeowner who suspects the berries on the counter are the source of a kitchen fly outbreak can run the same float test before the fruit ferments and seeds a full indoor infestation.
University of Delaware Cooperative Extension (Weekly Crop Update); article by Kelly Hamby, University of MarylandWhen fruit flies are busiest in Delaware
Indoor vinegar fly pressure in Delaware tracks the late-summer and fall harvest, when ripe produce is brought indoors and SWD-infested backyard berries and grapes are most abundant; University of Delaware SWD monitoring in 2011 ran from September into late December.
University of Delaware Cooperative Extension's Weekly Crop Update stresses that spotted wing drosophila has no action threshold, so control depends on a tight 7-day spray interval for growers plus sanitation: removing and destroying cull fruit, harvesting every two days, and cooling fruit to 32-36 degrees F. The same publication describes a salt-float test that homeowners can use to confirm larvae in suspect fruit.
For context, nationally
- 8 to 10 days egg to adult — Life cycle length. University of Maryland Extension
- As few as 8 days — Fastest life cycle under optimum conditions. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
Sources: University of Delaware Cooperative Extension (Weekly Crop Update); University of Delaware Cooperative Extension (Weekly Crop Update); article by Kelly Hamby, University of Maryland; University of Maryland Extension; Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Figures are quoted as the source prints them. How we check our sources
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