Fruit fly and the home garden
A community problem
In urban areas, QFF poses a serious threat to the production of a range of home-grown fruits and fruiting vegetables due to the ability of feeding QFF maggots to make the fruit inedible.
In fruit production areas, a QFF outbreak has the potential to cost local fruit growers more than $100 million each year in additional production costs, ultimately resulting in higher prices for fresh fruit.
Due to a number of Victoria's horticultural industries being focussed, they are particularly vulnerable to the occurrence of the pest.
Home gardeners in all areas have a vital role to play in controlling QFF and preventing it from establishing and spreading. By caring for your fruit trees, disposing of fruit properly and reporting suspected detections of QFF you can protect your home-grown produce and help reduce the economic impact of this pest on commercial and domestic products.
What should I look for?
You should regularly inspect semi-ripe and ripe fruit for QFF larvae (or maggots), which are more likely to be detected than adult flies.
Fruit will normally need to be cut open to check for maggots, because infested fruit may appear to be in sound condition from the outside.
QFF maggots are 5-10mm long and creamy-white in colour.
Adult QFF are about 7 mm long and reddish brown in colour, with distinct yellow oval markings.
Female QFF lay eggs in ripening fruit, which hatch into maggots and burrow deep into the fruit making it unsuitable for consumption.
There are more than 100 fruits which are hosts of QFF, including:
| peach nectarine grapefruit pear avocado grape cumquat |
apricot orange fig quince tomato eggplant passionfruit |
plum lemon apple loquat chilli capsicum strawberry |
Can I take fruit with me?
If you live in an area where QFF has been detected, home-grown fruit and fruiting vegetables must not be taken out of fruit fly suspension zones unless it has been stewed, preserved or processed.
Although travelling with fresh home-grown fruit and vegetables from your property within fruit fly suspension zones is permitted, it is recommended that you check your fruit for infestation before it leaves your property to prevent the spread of the pest.
View this map to see if you are in a fruit fly suspension zone.
What can I do?
If you have QFF host plants in your garden, you should:
Prune fruit trees to a height which makes fruit picking easy.
Remove fruit as it ripens.
Collect and dispose of fallen fruit on a ongoing basis. Fruit infested with QFF can be disposed of in a sealed plastic bag, which is either left in the sun for 5-7 dats or placed in a freezer for two days. This will destroy the maggots and prevent adult flies from developing.
The bagged fruit can then be discarded in your garbage bin.
Compost carefully - do not place unwanted fruit in your compost or worm farm, or put it directly into your garbage.
Remove any unwanted fruit trees from your property.
Please allow a Department of Primary Industries (DPI) officer to inspect your garden if requested to do so. If you need to arrange a specific time for a requested inspection, please contact DPI's Queensland Fruit Fly Hotline on 1300 135 559.
Who should I contact if I think I've found QFF?
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| Victoria’s Permanent Fruit Fly Zone. Click on the image to view a larger version’s Permanent Fruit Fly Zone |
You should contact DPI's Queensland Fruit Fly Hotline on 1300 135 559 if you find:
Maggots in your home-grown fruit. Samples containing maggots can be collected by DPI and, if they are identified as QFF, a control program can be implemented.
Neglected fruit trees. Vacant blocks and commercial premises often contain neglected fruit trees which act as breeding grounds for QFF.
However, please note that DPI does not currently conduct QFF eradication programs in the Permanent Fruit Fly Zone of eastern Victoria (see map). QFF is endemic in this zone and in the adjoining area of NSW.
Further information on Queensland fruit fly can also be found at http://preventfruitfly.com.au/
