Cooperative Extension at Highmoor Farm

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted Wing Drosophila: Fly counts in our vinegar/yeast traps were similar to last week’s numbers and were high enough in nearly all locations to warrant protective sprays to ripening […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted Wing Drosophila: Fly counts in our vinegar/yeast traps were high enough to warrant protective sprays to all ripening berry and soft fruit crops to protect against infestation. I […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager The early arrival of spotted wing drosophila fruit flies caused significant damage to some strawberry fields in southern Maine. Now that the strawberry season is over, other fruit hosts […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted wing drosophila fruit flies and larvae have been reported in ripe strawberry fruit in southern and central Maine this week. This is a very early appearance of spotted […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager This will be the final issue of the Spotted Wing Drosophila Alert for the 2023 season. Spotted wing drosophila counts declined substantially in all of our trapping locations this […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted wing drosophila trap counts continue to rise in most locations this week, as we would expect at this time in the season, especially with the relatively mild weather […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted wing drosophila trap counts were higher in nearly all locations this week, most notably in a field where spraying had been stopped. Although these numbers are relatively low […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted wing drosophila trap counts in the past few weeks have been relatively low for this late in the season and that trend continued this week, with trap catches […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted wing drosophila trap counts have remained relatively steady for several weeks, which is unusual for this late in the season.  Past experience has typically shown significant increases in […]

David Handley, Vegetable and Small Fruit Specialist; James Dill, Pest Management Specialist, Phil Fanning, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Entomology, Christina Howard, Maine New Farmer Project Manager Spotted Wing Drosophila: Populations of spotted wing drosophila remained relatively steady this week, with captures higher in some fields, lower in other fields, but no major changes, except where […]