Pests & diseases › Spotted Wing Drosophila
Spotted Wing Drosophila
Invasive fruit fly (SWD). Females lay eggs in ripening berries — soft fruit collapses within days.
Symptoms
- Soft berries collapsing on the cane within 24 hours of ripening
- Tiny white maggots inside fruit
- Worst on raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries
Lifecycle
Multiple overlapping generations July–October.
What to do
- Pick early — even slightly under-ripe — and refrigerate immediately
- Bag any maggoty fruit and windfalls
- Apple cider vinegar traps as indicator
If it's bad
- Spinosad-based products (check state registration)
Stop it coming back
- Fine 0.8mm mesh over cropping bushes
- Pick every two days during peak season
- No rotten fruit on the ground anywhere
Crops it goes for
Plan the plot, track every sowing, cook the harvest
Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.