Local fruit fly information

Fruit Fly control in Massachusetts

Learn what to look for around your property, explore your city, and ask about an inspection or a quote.

Fruit Flies in Massachusetts: what to know

Around Massachusetts

Conditions vary across the state. Choose your city below, then describe what’s happening around your home or business.

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 Massachusetts: what the public record shows

Before you compare quotes, it helps to know which fruit flies actually live in Massachusetts, when they are busiest, and what the state figures look like. Everything below links to the agency or university page it came from.

Found in New England in late summer 2011, shortly after Hurricane Irene, and caused significant crop damage in fall raspberries among other crops

Spotted wing drosophila arrival in New England

Massachusetts growers and homeowners with fall-bearing raspberries have had a fruit fly that attacks sound fruit since 2011, which changed harvest and sanitation practice statewide.

UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, UMass Extension Fruit Program

Adults live up to 2 weeks, females can lay 300 eggs, development from egg to adult can take as little as 8 days, and there are likely over 10 generations per growing season

Development speed and generations

Ten-plus overlapping generations is why UMass warns that once eggs are laid inside fruit the crop can no longer be protected with pesticides, and why source removal beats spraying.

UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, UMass Extension Fruit Program

Overwinters as adults and possibly pupae in leaf litter, duff and rotting fruit; hosts include blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, nectarines and peaches, plus wild elderberries, crabapples and fox grapes, and it may be found in high tunnel tomatoes

Overwintering and hosts in the Northeast

Unmanaged wild hosts and leaf litter on the edge of a Massachusetts property keep the population alive between seasons, so cleanup is not just about the fruit planting itself.

UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, UMass Extension Fruit Program

When fruit flies are busiest in Massachusetts

UMass Extension advises deploying traps before fruit ripening to catch the onset of infestation; with over 10 generations per growing season the population builds through summer into the fall raspberry harvest, which is where the pest first did significant damage in New England in 2011.

UMass Extension's Fruit Program states that unlike other fruit flies, spotted wing drosophila attacks sound ripening fruit, and that once eggs are laid in fruit it can no longer be controlled with pesticides. It recommends confirming an infestation with a salt-float test - mash the fruit in salt solution and the roughly 1/8 inch white larvae float to the surface while the fruit sinks.

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: UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, UMass Extension Fruit Program; 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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Boston

Humid Continental · urban setting

Fruit Fly control in Massachusetts

Fruit Flies in Massachusetts: what to know

Around Massachusetts

What to note

A useful next step

Fruit Flies in Massachusetts: what the public record shows

When fruit flies are busiest in Massachusetts

For context, nationally

Explore Massachusetts cities

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