Pest of the month – Queensland Fruit Fly

The Queensland fruit fly is a native of Australia, where it is the country's most serious insect pest of fruit and vegetable crops. It has spread to Pacific countries such as New Caledonia.

Queensland fruit flies belong to the fly family Tephritidae, which includes more than 4,500 species. Most of those species aren't pests but the Queensland fruit fly is very damaging, infesting more than 100 different fruits and vegetables such as pipfruit, kiwifruit, avocado, citrus, feijoa, grape, and summerfruit. The pest lays eggs in ripening fruit. Larvae hatch and pulp the fruit from the inside. The entry wounds also increase the risk of fungal infection. If this fly were to establish in New Zealand, it would have serious consequences for our $5-billion horticultural industry due to export restrictions.

Queensland fruit fly has been a regular visitor to our shores this decade with biosecurity responses to combat the pest in 2012, twice in 2014 and once in 2015. While grapes are not a key host for the pest response operations would likely lock down the movement of fruit over the area of the operation. This would be particularly problematic at harvest time as it may prevent movement of fruit from the vineyard to the winery.

New Zealand Winegrowers has not signed the Fruit fly Operational Agreement because our industry’s market access would not be effected should this pest establish. Hence the wine industry would be an observer in any future biosecurity response to eradicate this pest and would not participate in response decision making or be eligible for cost share.