Fruit Program News

  • Spotted Wing Drosophila on yellow trap

    New Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) page

    The new UMass Extension Spotted Wing Drosophila Resouce Center is now available.  Go to Spotted Wing Drosophila Introduction page to enter the site which has information on ID & Biology, Monitoring, and Management of SWD. The page will be updated regularly and will soon include mapping data from the UMass Spotted Wing Drosophila reporting network.

  • Winter Moth in New England Fruit Crops

    Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata): This is a new and important pest of blueberries, apples and other deciduous plants, especially in Southeastern New England. They can severely defoliate trees and bushes and can hollow out fruiting buds. Moths emerge from the soil usually in late November and may be active into January. Eggs hatch in early Spring and larvae feed on swelling buds of many different plant hosts, causing damage in fruit crops.

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  • Male Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii)

    Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii)

    Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii), SWD, is a recently introduced new species of fruit fly in the United States. It was first found on the west coast in 2008, but has rapidly colonized many fruit producing regions of the country.  It was first found in New England in late summer 2011 and has now been confirmed in Massachusetts (as of July 3) in 2012.
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  • Winter Moth on blueberry buds (2011)

    Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)

    Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata): This is a new and important pest of apples, blueberries and other deciduous plants, especially in Southeastern New England. They can severely reduce yields and/or defoliate bushes. Moths emerge from the soil usually in late November and may be active into January.  Eggs hatch in late March or early April and the small caterpillars wriggle into swelling buds of wild and cultivated hosts, hollowing out the interior.  The eggs are thought to hatch at around 20 GDD base 50˚F from March 1 or when Norway Maple buds are swelling.  (Another model predicts egg hatch at 173 GDD base of 40˚F starting Jan 1).  This may come early in 2012 due to unseasonably warm weather in March. To calculate the Growing Degree Days for your location, see http://newa.cornell.edu/
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  • Northern grapes: Integrating viticulture, winemaking, and marketing of new cold hardy cultivars supporting new and growing rural wineries

    The emergence of cold hardy, Vitis riparia-based wine grape cultivars in the 1990s created a new and rapidly expanding industry of small vineyard and winery enterprises (over 300 wineries, 3,300 acres of grapes, 1300 growers) in more than 12 states in New England, northern New York, and the Upper Midwest, boosting rural economies in those regions.
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