Fruit Fly Prevention

[AlFulchino]

just a quick note to discuss eradication of fruit flies...somewhere along the line here or elsewhere i mentioned a new fruit fly had invaded the northeast from elsewhere in the country....this one lays its eggs on fruit and the larvae burrough into good fruit.....so some extension agents have advised grape growers to consider harvesting fruit earlier than normal....so we now have two fruit fly enemies old and new......but really to my reason for writing...since the harvest time was so wet this yr we had more fruit flies than normal.....so anticipating the problem during harvest tasks we set up a high power fan in the area for production....ahead of time....within two hours of placement and operation we noted thousands of dead fruit flies in front of the fan on the ground...we cleaned the area and each time interval we noted less and less until it was nothing more than a simple nuissance

the flies have their wings broken because of the fan and the general force of air.....just wanted to pass this along...we all use fans to keep flies away from bottling areas etc when flies are in season...but using a high powered fan ahead of time is a pre-op against this enemy really really works better than the traps etc

 

[AlFulchino]

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one item i left out because my memory is getting worse and worse, to
those who use food grade brutes for fermentation...the lids do not seal
well enough to keep the fruit fly out...get some white linen and cut to
fit over the opening and then place the brute lid over and close....the
linen lets in air for the yeast and provides a good fruit fly barrier
because the linen makes for a breathable gasket




















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