Pest Library
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Fruit Fly
Drosophila spp
These nuisance pests develop on fresh produce and fermenting liquids, including beer and wine. Fruit flies are tiny and can fit through ordinary screens, feasting on your fresh fruits and leaving behind their eggs, which only take 30 hours to hatch.
RISK LEVEL:
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH
Risk is defined as how much damage each pest can be to you, your family, or your home
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| Class: | Order: | Family: | |
| Insecta | Diptera | Drosophilidae | |
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| Size: | Small fruit fly and vinegar fly adults are about 1/8 in (3-4 mm) long, including wings. |
| Color: | Adult Drosophila are dull tan to brownish yellow or brownish black; eyes usually bright red. Larvae are nearly white, except mouth hooks which are black, and the tips of the abdominal breathing pores which are yellowish. |
| Characteristics: | True fruit flies are in a different group from these Drosophila species. Adult small fruit flies have antenna with a feathery bristle; wings with thickened front margins, intersected in two places. Mature Drosophila melanogaster larvae are about 1/4-3/8 in (7-8 mm) long, eyeless, legless, and tapered from large rounded rear to the pair of dark mouth hooks at the "head" end. |
| Geographic Range: | Worldwide, throughout the United States. |
| Food: | Fresh fruits and vegetables, such as bananas, grapes, peaches, pineapples, tomatoes; fermenting liquids, such as beer, cider, vinegar, and wine. When fresh materials decay they are less attractive to these flies, due to bacteria and fungi. |
| Biology: | Drosophila females lay eggs near the surface of fermenting fruits and vegetables or in poorly sealed jars of these foods. Eggs take about 30 hours to hatch. Larvae develop in brine or vinegar of fermenting material. They feed near the surface, mostly on the yeast, for 5-6 days. They go to drier places to pupate. Newly emerged adults mate in about 2 days. The life cycle may be completed within 8-10 days at 85 degrees F (29 degrees C). |
- Be aware of flies that hover around fruit, fresh produce, and fermenting liquids like beer and wine.
- Clean up spills properly, to avoid them hovering around or landing in those sites.