Traps and lures or baits

The adult fly feeds and matures for about one week prior to mating. During this time it can be attracted to a bait and trapped. A range of baits are used. generally the strategy is to maintain a few baits before the fruit season to identify the first flight. When the first evidence of activity is discovered a full baiting schedule must begin immediately.

Some baits are indiscriminate, attracting useful insects such as bees, lacewings and hoverflies, so you will have to experiment to discover which ones are most effective in your area without causing too much damage to beneficial insects.

Traps can include small jars, plastic bottles and a range of other receptacles. You could also try good old fashioned fly paper - although it is indiscriminate and will stick anything that lands on it.

Dak pots are available in NSW for Queensland fruit fly, but they are only a monitoring tool and will not control the pest. They attract males only and are used to indicate flights and as a guide for when to spray.

Splash baits are made with a cup of sugar in one litre of water and 5-10 ml pyrethrum (conventional splash baits are made with maldison). Nicotine sulphate was used for this purpose and was once considered to be organically acceptable but it is now considered too toxic to be recommended in these pages especially when pyrethrum works well (if reapplied often). Walk around the orchard with the mixture in a bucket dipping the end of branches into the liquid.