This year’s blueberry crop, Georgia’s largest fruit crop, is being threatened by small but destructive flies.
The spotted wing drosophila, a fly that originated in Japan, can penetrate and lay eggs in ripening blueberries, and this is causing concern among the state’s blueberry farmers. Most vinegar flies or fruit flies only lay eggs in damaged or old fruit.
The best way to prevent crop damage is to spray chemicals from the air, which can be costly. Dusting blueberries can cost around twenty dollars an acre.
The University of Georgia is studying this insect, and they are looking for ways to treat crops for it, but it will probably not be eradicated because it lives naturally in the wild.
The expense of treating the blueberry fields is expected to eat into farmer’s profits during harvest time.
read more at WCTV here.