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Do you know the feeling of disappointment and sorrow you receive when you open your sweet gooseberry fruit and find a maggot inside?
It’s excruciating!!!
Because gooseberries can thrive with little attention, you may not notice that your gooseberry fruit has maggots until they begin to ripen.
Depending on how long the maggots have been present, the harm to your gooseberries will vary. As the maggots feed on pulp and mature, fruits may drop prematurely or develop dark patches inside red spots.
The current fruit fly and a gooseberry maggot will be discussed in today’s post. We’ll also talk about how to get rid of currant fruit flies and gooseberry on your berries plant.
Currant Fruit Flies: What Are They?
Currant fruit flies are little insects that lay eggs and hatch into larvae, feeding on the fruits of gooseberry and currant bushes.
Adult current worms are sawflies that appear like houseflies, while their green larvae with black markings are caterpillars that eat the foliage of currants and gooseberries, with the latter being their favourite.
A green caterpillar with dark green stripes down its sides is the gooseberry fruitworm (Zophodia convoluted).
This worm begins by eating its way out of the berries, damaging your fruit production, before moving on to the leaves.
Gray moths with brown, cream and grey wings are the adults.
Identification
Currant and gooseberry fruit are both infested by the larva or maggot of the currant fruit fly. The larva is white with one end and no visible head or legs.
The mature fly is about 8 mm long, with a brownish-yellow body and dark bands on its wings, and is slightly larger than a housefly.
Read Also:
- How to Identify and Prevent Common Lettuce Diseases
- How to Identify, Treat, and Prevent Common Apple Diseases
Biology And The Cycle of Life
Females lay eggs under the skin of young, green, developing current or gooseberry fruits in the spring. Each female can lay up to 200 eggs, with one egg laid per berry on average. That means a single fly can quickly damage a large number of berries.
The maggots hatch after a few days and dig further into the berry, eating the pulp and seeds along the way. They stay in the berry’s centre and consume until they are completely grown.
They’re voracious little pests, and one maggot can usually eat the entire interior of the fruit.
The afflicted fruits may turn crimson as they grow and fall from the vine into the ground. Gardeners with keen eyes may notice a flat, discoloured patch on the fruit where the parent put the egg. Activation period
The eggs are laid by the adults in immature, green fruit. The larvae feed on the inside of the fruit, causing it to drop prematurely. The larvae crawl out of the fallen berries, pupate, and spend the winter in the soil.
Close Observation
Adult currant fruit flies can be caught using yellow sticky boards loaded with an apple maggot attractant.
Set traps at the same height as the fruit in the bush. Adult currant fruit flies should be checked twice a week from green fruit through the first harvest.
How To Control Currant Fruit Flies
Cultural
To begin, make your growth area unfriendly to flies and larvae.
To keep the maggots from burrowing into the soil, rake up any fallen berries right away. In the fall, remove any leaves or other debris from beneath plants to make the pupae’s hiding place less inviting.
We want to make it as simple as possible for predators such as birds to locate them.
Gently plough the soil surrounding the bushes down a few inches in the fall, winter, and spring to expose the pupae and larvae.
They can be killed by the cold, but birds and other animals will do the majority of the work. Currant maggots are a delectable treat.
Keep in mind that the roots of gooseberry and currant plants are shallow. If you cultivate too deeply, you risk damaging their root systems.
Physical
Floating row covers are about to become your new best buddy if you have current flies. Just keep in mind that if you already have an infestation, you should avoid using coverings!
You’ll just catch the flies with your berries, allowing them to lay eggs without being bothered by predators.
Wait until the petals from the plant’s blossoms have fallen before putting the covers on. Pollination may not occur if this is not done, and you will not get fruits. Get those covers in place as soon as the petals fall!
Organic Pesticides
Because the larvae burrow within the fruit and are unable to be reached, there are no spray treatments that are effective against them.
Any treatment should be directed at controlling adult flies, and the application should be timed such that the flies are killed before they begin to lay eggs.
Within two weeks after emerging from the soil, the flies begin producing eggs. Sticky traps are handy in this situation. Hang the traps on the bush’s stems at the same height as the berries begin to grow in the early spring.
It’s time to start spraying at the first indication of a fly. You also can’t stop after just one application.
Because the flies emerge over a few weeks, you’ll need to spray at least once a week until the berries are ready to harvest to kill the newly emerged adults. Also, reapply after rain.
Don’t forget to spray the surrounding trees and bushes, covering both the top and bottom of the leaves with the spray. The flies prefer to congregate there.
Pesticide Control Using Chemicals
Because chemical sprays often have unforeseen repercussions, you should always strive to control this insect without using pesticides.
Currant fruit flies are effectively controlled using chemicals such as zeta-cypermethrin, bifenthrin, fenpropathrin, and carbaryl.
On sprayed plants, these chemicals build a toxic barrier. Before using chemicals, read the product labels carefully; harvesting fruits safely requires many days after spraying.
Monterey Bug Buster II, which contains esfenvalerate, works well against current fruit flies in this situation. Local bee populations are also decimated. Apply late at night and when there is no wind to reduce the impact.
Conclusion
Nobody enjoys dealing with pests, especially those that lay inside luscious berries, ready to surprise you like something out of a gothic tale. Currant fruit flies, on the other hand, are completely controllable, as you now know.
Please come back and tell us what worked best for you if you were successful in eradicating an infestation.
