gardenlen writes:
g'day john,

hope you are well?

Very well, Len, thanks for asking.

a lot in your psot but that is how it is with those of us attempting
to find ways of managing female fruit flies. i ave the understanding
the female hatches when conditions are humid enough and warm enough,
our star fruit indicaes that we are trapping male flies in low numbers
of course it is not season yet but have had no female damaged fruit.

Females emerged early beginning mid-Aug in 2009, researcher reports it
was a bad year for fruitfly, so can't rely on the calendar.

There is a lively fruitfly forum, with posts going back to 2007, on the
Daley's Fruit site, http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/forum/fruit-fly-control/
You may already be following it, judging by some of the details you
wrote in an earlier post. Though you haven't mentioned the lure
based on women's urine. Not yet. :-)

I did a bit of reading. Yes, the female mates only once in her life.
She lays her first brood of eggs about 5 days after the protein meal.
The protein she feeds on comes from common plant sources. (I guess
pollen is a protein, isn't it?)

She usually meets her mate in the same host she will lay her eggs and
feeds on that plant's sap or secretions. It's not clear whether "same host"
means the same species, or some specific individual tree. Neither seems
quite logical to me, considering her lifetime extends over many weeks.

The flies don't like open spaces, so set traps in shade against foliage.
The females are reluctant to go into traps with small entrance holes,
so you can't provide your trap with small holes in the hope of excluding
bigger harmless insects; you won't get any female fruit flies either.

If you manage to trap most of the males in an area, the female when
she finds none around will fly off to another area in search of males.
(But it didn't say she won't then return to her original bithplace to lay
her eggs. I think she can lay 700 in her lifetime.)

Anyone who has used nets seems to have had spectacular success,
and it probably excludes many of the smaller birds, too. Maybe other
pests, also? Nets would give you more peace of mind, too.

Adults can sit around all winter, biding their time until the first sign of
Spring. Except in cold climates where they die off and the population
has to reestablish from eggs that have overwintered.

so the nets will be out soon now as the tom plants are growing great
guns already needing tying. we got good fruit of the star fruit
because miraculously it fruited over autumn/winter and is still going
hope that keeps going as we then don't need to find a net for that
tree. or pick and dump all fruit when green.

Are the star fruit a cash crop, or just for your own consumption?

The tough skin on the cherry tomates resists the efforts of the
female Qld fruit fly, that's why they are usually free of fly. But if there
are other species around, e.g., the Mediterranean fruit fly, the Qld
frut fly will lay its eggs into the same puncture hole that the Med
fruit fly made so you get a double dose of maggots in that fruit!

I never did hear whether your big investment one year in garlic paid
dividends? I think that was at your previous location if I'm not mistaken.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)