There’s a renewed interest in managing one of Hawaiʻi’s most ubiquitous pests — fruit flies.
Fruit flies were first introduced to the state in 1945 and have more than 400 host species. The flies breed in fruit, damaging them so they can’t be sold at market.
Some estimates say they cost Hawaiʻi $300 million annually in lost markets for local crops. But the state is also under the only federal fruit fly quarantine in the U.S., which has been in place since 1912 and is estimated to cost local farmers $760 million every year.
And researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience say more farmers have been reporting damage from fruit flies.
“It is the feedback from the grower community to the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity that prompted us to get onto this,” said CTAHR entomologist Surendra Dara. “It looks like people are seeing more and more of these, especially growers. They probably can sense more.”
CTAHR wants a better understanding of fruit flies’ current impact on the islands, so they’re asking the public — both farmers and residents — to fill out a survey they’ve created.
The public has until June 30 to fill out the questionnaire. The information collected from the surveys will drive which management tools researchers will use.
“We’d like to develop research programs along the needs of the community,” said Pascal Atalor, a CTAHR assistant professor and entomologist. “So we need to, first of all, ask the farmers and ask people what their needs are, what their personal needs are. That way the impact will be great, because this is what they've asked us to do.”
CTAHR has historical success to lean on when choosing how to manage fruit flies.
In the late 1990s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture spearheaded an initiative that significantly curbed fly populations in Hawaiʻi.
The Areawide Pest Management Program used combined techniques, including the release of parasitoid wasps and sterile insects, and the use of lures, bait sprays and field sanitation practices.
Over a handful of years using the techniques, researchers found almost no fruit flies in areas where they were more common before the program started.
Researchers also said farm infestations often start as residential problems, so they are urging the public to do their part to mitigate fruit fly populations at home.
“That is the important message we want to drive. Farmers are always trying to control pests and diseases and weeds. They work very hard,” Dara said. “But even if you have 100 acres or 1,000 acres or five acres, all it takes is a few trees in the urban areas to serve as the sources. … Everybody needs to be a part of this.”
