Mediterranean fruit fly

What you see

A pretty fly, 4-5 mm, with mottled banded wings and yellow-and-brown patterning - noticeably more colourful than a housefly. It sits on ripening fruit in the sun.

Damage

Soft, sunken brown patches on ripening fruit, often with a tiny sting mark at the centre. Cut it open and you find white maggots and a rotten cavity. Fruit falls early.

Lifecycle on this coast

Several generations a year, breeding continuously while fruit is available. Maggots drop to the ground and pupate in the top few centimetres of soil.

When to act

Act at the first catch in a trap, before your fruit begins to colour - once the fruit is soft and sweet, it is already too late for that crop.

Months: May, June, July, August, September, October

Plants it bothers

Peach, Fig, Persimmon, Orange, Loquat, Apple, Pear, Quince, Tangerine

Natural enemies

Ground beetle, Bat, Parasitic wasp

Remedies

Pheromone traps, Kaolin clay film, Encourage predators

The thing people get wrong

Pick up and destroy every fallen fruit, every few days, all season. It feels like drudgery and it is the single most effective thing you can do - each windfall left lying is a maggot factory, and the pupae go straight into the soil under your own tree ready for the next round.