Female SWD. Image via www.ipm.ucdavis.edu.
The Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium has recently funded monitoring efforts for the spotted wing drosophila (D. suzukii) in the southeast. Our work will rely upon a volunteer network of agricultural professionals, including county cooperative extension agents, master gardeners, and certified crop consultants. Monitoring efforts will be on a volunteer basis, but training, support, and materials will be provided. Training sessions will begin in March 2010, and monitoring efforts are targeted to begin in April. Monitoring locations will include backyard gardens and non commerical plantings of potential host plants (ie. peaches, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, and caneberries). We will avoid be monitoring commercial small fruit farms in the first stage of this project, because of potential regulatory implications. If and when SWD are detected and confirmed in a region, we may include commerical grower sites if there is sufficient interest.
This project will initially focus on North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, but training and methods will be available to interested parties from other states upon request. If you are interested in participating in monitoring efforts, contact Hannah Burrack.
Monitoring information will be collected via Google Documents and shared via this website and others.
UPDATE: We will now include commercial farms as possible monitoring sites.
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