Last summer, we conducted extensive blueberry maggot monitoring at 14 North Carolina locations with the goal of determining the size of our populations, improving management tools, and ideally, minimizing pesticide applications. We found that blueberry maggot populations in southeastern North Carolina are very low. We caught a grand total of 3 flies after checking our traps over 1600 times! This year, we have expanded our program to include 15 locations and included traps to monitoring spotted wing drosophila (at 10 locations) and sharpnosed leafhoppers (at 15 locations).
All of our traps are checked weekly (as we recommend), and our data are uploaded the following day. Blueberry maggot and sharpnosed leafhopper captures to date are available below and will be updated as new data are added. Scroll over data points for site and trap capture information.
These trap capture data are collected in Bladen, Pender, and New Hanover Counties in North Carolina and are intended to support the insect management programs of blueberry growers in these areas. As always, management decisions should be made based on site-specific information!
UPDATE
Spotted wing drosophila captures have now been added and will also be updated weekly. New Hanover 1 is located at the Ideal Tract of the Horticultural Crops Research Station, Castle Hayne, NC.
The graphs were too busy when fly sex was included, but it is worth noting that the first flies captured at New Hanover 1 and Bladen 5 were both female. The first male SWD in southeastern NC was captured at New Hanover 1 on Friday, May 20th. This is particularly important for growers, because female flies are more difficult for non expert observers to identify. If female flies consistently appear before males in the spring (as has been observed on the west coast), growers must carefully check trap captures to ensure that they do not miss the beginning of SWD activity and treat in a timely fashion.
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