Protect your garden from the Queensland Fruit Fly

Published on 30 March 2020

Queensland fruit fly

The Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) is a year-round horticultural pest for local gardeners and producers. As sunset temperatures exceed 16 degrees in spring, flies begin laying eggs in many commonly grown fruit and vegetables suitable for hosting. Flies remain active during summer and autumn, even surviving over winter by sheltering in buildings and trees.

Common host fruit

All stone fruits, apples, peaches, pears and tomatoes are common garden fruits that are susceptible, but so are fruits like capsicums, chiles, loquats, persimmons and pomegranates.

Confronting flies in your garden

Agriculture Victoria provides a full resource guide on the QFF lifecycle, appearance descriptions and host fruits commonly found in gardens.

Measures you can take

Already affected fruit

Do not compost infested fruit: put it in a plastic bag and leave in the sun for a week, then put it in your garbage bin. Larvae will spawn in your compost if you put it in there.

Alternatively, you can bake, boil or microwave your fruit at high temperature for a few minutes to destroy eggs and larvae.

Queensland Fruit Fly lifecycle

There are 4 stages in the life cycle that you should be aware of.

Egg: 1 female can lay up to 100 eggs per day inside host fruits and vegetables.

Larva: after hatching, maggots begin eating fruit from within, causing it to rot and fall to the ground.

Pupa: it chews its way out of the host fruit and burrows into the soil where it forms a pupal case around itself and begins its transformation into adult form.

Adult: it emerges from the ground, begins feeding, then mating and searches for a suitable fruit to lay eggs in.

In the right conditions, the Queensland Fruit Fly can complete its lifecycle in around 30 days, potentially allowing for 9 generations per year.

Tagged as:
Back to top