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Saturday, October 1, 2011

Grape Pest in Connectict --- The Spotted Wing Drosophila

Since we are Master Gardeners and need to keep up our active member status, we went to the Hot Topics course in Vernon on Wednesday and the topic was about pests in Connecticut. Joan Allen gave the seminar and one of the pests that she mentioned that is creating a problem for Connecticut farmers is the Spotted Wing Drosophila. This is a new pest in Connecticut and Joan mentioned that we should be on the look out for it. I found a great picture of the male and female drosophila on this link from British Columbia:Spotted Wing Drosophila
The insect looks like this:
It wasn't until we went to help a friend pick their grapes that we realized that "farmers" also meant "grape growers". It seems that some of the vineyards in Connecticut are now infested with the Spotted Wing Drosophila. The problem is that the drosophila will burrow into the grape, eat the grape pulp and lay their eggs in the grape berry. The eggs then develop into maggots and the grape growers were seeing maggots in their harvested grapes.
Here is a link to more information about the Spotted Wing Drosophila in Connecticut.
Correction: My husband and I attended a seminar in Rhode Island where one of the topics was the Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD). The problem with the SWD is the sawlike ovipositor that the female uses to puncture intact grapes to lay the eggs. This puncture is the portal through which other organisms, bacteria and fungi enter to damage the fruit. Please see the following blog site for more updated information. Spotted Wing Drosophila, Crop Insurance and Alice Wise

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