Fruit Fly Season
High season for the dreaded fruit fly- every gardener knows about it. Just to make sure that everyone understands, I am talking about the Queensland fruit fly, not the vinegar fly! I would gladly accept one million vinegar flies in exchange for one Queensland fruit fly. I you want to google here is the Latin name: Bactrocera tryoni.
Southernwood To The Rescue:
Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum) is a kind of wormwood, which according to the lore deters all kinds of pests, like aphids, bean flies, whiteflys, fleas, the caterpillars of the white cabbage butterfly, cabbage moth, and the dreaded fruit fly!
Note: I haven’t tried any of it but I am getting excited about this herb and want to plant southernwood everywhere. The good thing is that it grows in part-shade also. Sorry, so far we don’t have it online but it is for sale at our nursery in Tea Gardens.
As with any other wormwood, southernwood is a good plant to have around the chicken coop.
Southernwood Fruit Fly Spray:
This is not my recipe but was invented by Penny Woodward.
Simply pack Southernwood tightly in a vessel and pour boiling water over it. Use both, stems and leaves. Let sit until cold and spray to deter fruit flies.
Note that the recipe deters fruit flies only, it does not kill them. To reduce the number of fruit flies we should definitively bait early in the season. There are two kinds of baits one for males and one for females. For the females there are commercial and homemade concoctions, for the males there is no homemade recipe, you need to buy Ceratraps (no, I am not paid by the company for mentioning them).
Also, pick up all fallen fruit and boil them. keeping enough chickens in your orchard will also help. the best is of course to net.
If you plant any fruit it is your responsibility to keep fruit fly at bay!
