Blueberry maggot flight begins in southeastern North Carolina

Oneal blueberries ripening at The Bush & Vine, York, SC.  Photo: HJB

We captured our first blueberry maggot (Rhagoletis mendax) adult, a female, at the Ideal Track of the Horticultural Crops Research Station, Castle Hayne, NC.  This marks the beginning of the blueberry maggot flight, right on schedule for the historic average flight time, 25 May.

We are monitoring blueberry maggot flies and other insects at 15 locations in southeastern NC.  We not caught flies at any of the commercial blueberry farms, nearly all of which are following the calendar-based management program for blueberry maggot and began treating at least 2 weeks ago.

View blueberry maggot, sharpnosed leafhopper, and SWD captures from NC blueberry country here.  Ideal Track is Site 14 in the blueberry maggot trapping list.

More information

Blueberry maggot and sharpnosed leafhopper monitoring data now available UPDATE: SWD data now added