I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?

cookie wrote:
I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?

No. Allthough fruit fly traps are around, I have never see them work in
any effective way.

"cookie" wrote in message
oups.com...
I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?


I have contacts in an organic grower's society who say that traps work
provided that you start them early and monitor them and you and your
neighbours maintain proper cleanliness, ie don't leave rotten fruit about. I
haven't tried it.

This year I am trying bagging. The concept is that bags keep out flies and
birds and bats. I will let your know in a few months if they work.

David

On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:19:18 -0700, cookie wrote:

I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?

Lebaycid is the best. It is an organic chemical.

wrote in message
...
On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:19:18 -0700, cookie
wrote:

I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?

Lebaycid is the best. It is an organic chemical.



Almost all pesticides are organic chemicals (ie chemical compounds based on
the chemistry of carbon) but few are acceptable to organic growers or may be
used in organic methods. These two meanings of "organic" have been known and
understood to be different for some time.

David

"cookie" wrote in message
oups.com...
I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?


Fruitfly are a pain. I have been trying to stop them for years. I make up a
mix of 500ml water, 1 cup sugar or honey, 2 tsp bakers yeast and 2 tblsp
powdered ginger (basically a ginger beer plant). I put the contents into
plastic bottles and hang it on the tree. I drill several holes in the side
with a 4mm drill. The contents ferment and catches fruitfly as well as
vinegar flys. It has to be emptied of deadies and also topped up due to
evaporation. This limits some of the fruitfly but I still lose fruit to
them.

Any fallen fruit should be removed from the ground and destroyed. The
maggots will eat away merrily and when they have reached their time leave
the fruit and burrow in the ground. There they form a chrystallis (not sure
if that's the word) it looks like a hard reddish brown shell smaller than a
tictac but the same shape. They will break out and be a fruitfly then. Where
upon they fly up to the tree and start the cycle again.

The cycle will be 5 days in hot weather, that is from maggot to adult.
Unhatched fruitfly during winter will hatch when it 24C in spring. So most
fruitfly is hibernating in the soil under your fruit tree.

An interesting observation was when I had chooks scratching around under a
fig tree I had no fruitfly or very little. When the chooks were gone the
tree was lousy with them. So chooks could be an option or maybe rake to soil
often under the tree. I could find no information to say how deep they
burrow.

Not sure if a thick mulch under a tree would stop them. Could keep the soil
cooler so maybe slow down the breeding cycle.

Wondering if traps at ground level would help also.

Some things to ponder I guess. Good luck with the blighters.

Rick

you don't say waht area you are from cookie?

but we use a couple of trap methods to trap the f/f one kills the
males the other traps the females, we run the male traps all year as a
good control over males helps with less fertile females being around.

anyhow recipes on our remedies page, for the males buy a f/f wick from
the produce agency mkae trap bottle out of 1.25 or 2 litre soft drink
bottles.

also a product a friend swears by called "vita-guard" from
www.nutri-tech.com.au, plants can do a lot to repell insects if
their systems get all the trace nutrients so this process behind this
is it brings the plants into balance, also don't use lots of man made
chemical type fertilisers these just boost the nitrogen level of the
plants and tend to make them more attractive bugs.

can't pass any commnet on the rpoduct as yet as we have only used it
for the first time.

we rely on mulching and kitchen scraps for our nutrients in the soil.


On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:19:18 -0700, cookie
wrote:
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

Crikey females, males. Why not kill them all?
We dont feel we have to segregate them.


len garden wrote:
you don't say waht area you are from cookie?

but we use a couple of trap methods to trap the f/f one kills the
males the other traps the females, we run the male traps all year as a
good control over males helps with less fertile females being around.

anyhow recipes on our remedies page, for the males buy a f/f wick from
the produce agency mkae trap bottle out of 1.25 or 2 litre soft drink
bottles.

also a product a friend swears by called "vita-guard" from
www.nutri-tech.com.au, plants can do a lot to repell insects if
their systems get all the trace nutrients so this process behind this
is it brings the plants into balance, also don't use lots of man made
chemical type fertilisers these just boost the nitrogen level of the
plants and tend to make them more attractive bugs.

can't pass any commnet on the rpoduct as yet as we have only used it
for the first time.

we rely on mulching and kitchen scraps for our nutrients in the soil.


On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:19:18 -0700, cookie
wrote:
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

good one jonno,

there is an effective male wick that will attract and kill males that
is the easy part, but trapping the females is another thing altogether
so that is the vexing problem when dealing with f/f, for us
controlling the males means less fertile females so less f/f damage,
and another part of our f/f control is good husbandry around the trees
ie.,. collecting and destroying all f/f damaged frut off-site.

so f/f control is a multi-part process.


On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:20:36 +1000, Jonno
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

It appears for me there is no real good way of dealing with the
blighters. So minimising is all one can hope for.
Free range chooks may be one answer.
You have trouble trapping females too? Darn I thought it was my
personality! (Or breath fresheners arent up to the task)

len garden wrote:
good one jonno,

there is an effective male wick that will attract and kill males that
is the easy part, but trapping the females is another thing altogether
so that is the vexing problem when dealing with f/f, for us
controlling the males means less fertile females so less f/f damage,
and another part of our f/f control is good husbandry around the trees
ie.,. collecting and destroying all f/f damaged frut off-site.

so f/f control is a multi-part process.


On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:20:36 +1000, Jonno
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

g'day jonno,

no mate it doesn't come down to your bronzed rugged good looks or
masculine aroma, the female of all species are hard to attract! us
males go easy hey?

in the garden try to adopt the theory of control and management of
pests etc, you will then get a balance, erradication won't happen or
if it does it will be at a cost.

we have trapped another mass of male flies all out of commission now
for the coming season, currently no fruit happening here as yet but
hopefully this will put us a head in the control stakes along with the
use of that product i earlier mentioned.

our female traps as usual work slow there are some dead bugs in them
but they maybe other sorts of flies??

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 07:21:41 +1000, Jonno
wrote:
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

Time flies like an arrow! Fruit flies like a banana!
: Groucho Marx

len garden wrote:
g'day jonno,

no mate it doesn't come down to your bronzed rugged good looks or
masculine aroma, the female of all species are hard to attract! us
males go easy hey?

in the garden try to adopt the theory of control and management of
pests etc, you will then get a balance, erradication won't happen or
if it does it will be at a cost.

we have trapped another mass of male flies all out of commission now
for the coming season, currently no fruit happening here as yet but
hopefully this will put us a head in the control stakes along with the
use of that product i earlier mentioned.

our female traps as usual work slow there are some dead bugs in them
but they maybe other sorts of flies??

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 07:21:41 +1000, Jonno
wrote:
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

On Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:40:20 +1000, wrote:

On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:19:18 -0700, cookie wrote:

I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?

Lebaycid is the best. It is an organic chemical.

Vegimate is the best

Place chlorene with water and a spood ful of vegimite into an old
plastic 2l orange juice container. Mix it all up and hang it off the
tree. Most effecttive and wipes fruit fly out.

"cookie" wrote in message
oups.com...
I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?


I found a reference here you may find interesting

http://www.tweedrichmond.organicprod...t/peststrt.htm

they talk about fruit fly towards the bottom of the page.

Also have you considered seeing if there is an Agfact on the subject. I
looked at the dept of ag's website but they don't have one online, but there
may be a paper copy. Years ago when I was an ag student I had just about
every one they printed, and there was section devoted to the home gardener.
Maybe they are up to date and have organic ones now as well. You could also
try talking to one of the boffins at the Gosford/Somersby office. Not sure
if Gosford is shut yet but that is where they were researching the fruit
fly. They were supposed to move up the hill to the experimental farm at
Somersby.

Chris

cookie" wrote in message
oups.com...
I love my own fruit&vegie products from my garden, but I had to put
more than half of my juicy nectarines into the garbage bag last year.
Can anybody give me an organic method of dealing with fruit fly please?


Some interesting information / solutions:
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/03/03jul21b.cfm

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s741646.htm

http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/pls/porta...GN2004_024.PDF

good luck
giovani