Situation as at 27 August 2019 – ‘Buds are swelling and fruit flies are stirring’
Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) trapping rates bottomed out at zero QFF trapped over the whole of the Goulburn Murray Valley (GMV) over the first two weeks of August 2019. This is largely due to being too cold for QFF to be attracted to lures inside the traps. When compared to trapping rates leading into winter for the years from 2012, when QFF started to become a massive problem, the 2018/2019 QFF season is the smallest. This winter was not the coldest on record so QFF remain comparatively unaffected. There was high heat stress for QFF in January 2019 but none for the rest of the QFF season after that. The implication is that the GMV Area-wide Fruit Fly Management program is contributing to QFF reduction, too.

Please see attached report for more information.