Tree Fruit Pest Meets its Match
Searching for spotted wing drosophila: WSU entomologist Elizabeth Beers scopes it out.
In the course of a single year, a tiny insect has been damaging tree fruit around the globe. Spotted wing drosophila, or SWD, a type of vinegar or fruit fly, has been known in Japan, its home turf, for decades.
The fly was first detected in the United States in California in 2008 and quickly spread northwards into the Pacific Northwest. “Most drosophilids don’t attack undamaged fruit — indeed the vast majority cannot — but this one can,” said Elizabeth Beers, an entomologist and Extension specialist based at WSU’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee. Read more »
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