Around North Dakota
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 North Dakota
Learn what to look for around your property, explore your city, and ask about an inspection or a quote.
Fruit Flies in North Dakota: 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 North Dakota: what the public record shows
Before you compare quotes, it helps to know which fruit flies actually live in North Dakota, when they are busiest, and what the state figures look like. Everything below links to the agency or university page it came from.
Detected for the first time in 2013, in a cherry fruit sample from the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center
First confirmed spotted wing drosophila record in North Dakota
North Dakota was one of the last states reached, and NDSU noted human-assisted transportation rather than natural dispersion as the likely cause, which means produce brought into a home or kitchen is the realistic route of entry.
NDSU Extension and Ag Research News, North Dakota State University2 to 3 millimeters long, bright red eyes, a light brown body and dark brown stripes on its abdomen; native to Japan, Korea and China
NDSU description of the fly
NDSU cautions that many native fruit flies resemble it and examination under a microscope is necessary, so a North Dakota homeowner should not assume a kitchen fly is the crop pest.
NDSU Extension and Ag Research News, North Dakota State UniversityNDSU's Carrington Research Extension Center reports SWD has infested its cherry crop as it starts to ripen since 2013, that it has not been able to control SWD with its spray program, and that control requires insecticides applied at 3 to 5 day intervals for several weeks
Spray intervals and the limits of chemical control in North Dakota
This is a rare state-run trial saying plainly that spraying did not work, and that netting exclusion was the only way to raise fruit they felt good about eating.
Carrington Research Extension Center, North Dakota State UniversityWhen fruit flies are busiest in North Dakota
Outdoor activity is confined to a short summer and early fall window in North Dakota, so indoor pressure peaks in late summer and again whenever stored produce spoils inside a heated home during the long winter.
NDSU Extension entomologist Janet Knodel states that removing and destroying infested fruits and dropped fruits are the number one defense against this fly, and that chemical control must be applied weekly or biweekly with rotation between insecticide classes to prevent resistance. The Carrington Research Extension Center concluded that a netting exclusion system is the only reliable approach in North Dakota.
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: NDSU Extension and Ag Research News, North Dakota State University; Carrington Research Extension Center, North Dakota State University; 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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Bismarck
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Wahpeton
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