March 2024 First Friday with Florida First Detector

Recap of March 2024 First Friday with Florida First Detector

Fruit crops are very important for Florida’s agriculture industry. The state is a top producer for many tree fruits, berries, and melons. Despite challenges associated with citrus greening in Florida, citrus still remains one of Florida’s most important crops. In this month’s First Friday, we covered many invasive pests that could effect fruit.

In the webinar, we discussed briefly Asian citrus psyllid and citrus greening and how these invasive species have impacted citrus production in Florida. We also mentioned some other invasive fruit pests like brown marmorated stink bug and spotted wing drosophila which have causes losses in fruit production since their establishment in Florida. We also learned how to identify a few species that have not yet been found in Florida including the citrus fruit borer and the summer fruit tortrix. Lime swallow tail is another species that has been found with limited distribution in the Florida keys, so we are monitoring to see its current distribution and what impacts it could have on Florida’s citrus.

Invasive fruit flies, in the family Tephritidae, remain one of the biggest challenges for Florida’s fruit production, including citrus and many other fruit crops. Caribbean fruit fly is one invasive species that is currently found in Florida and is a management challenge for fruit producers. Other invasive fruit flies like Mediterranean fruit fly, oriental fruit fly, Mexican fruit fly, guava fruit fly, and peach fruit fly could cause serious impacts if they were introduced in Florida. For this reason, there are a lot of ongoing efforts to prevent the introduction, spread and establishment of invasive fruit flies, like these species discussed, in the state. In a previous webinar, we focused on invasive fruits flies and covered this pest group in more detail.

If you are seeing unusual pests, especially something you haven’t seen before, connect with your local county extension office. It may be the first time it is found in the state! By catching it early, we may be able to eradicate it or stop it from further spreading.

Resources on invasive fruit flies

Resources on other invasive species on fruit

Resources on citrus and citrus greening

Want to watch the recording?

What is the upcoming schedule?

We are meeting online via Zoom from 12:00PM-1:00PM on the First Friday of every month from Sept 2022-Aug 2024. Please visit this blog for registration information and the upcoming schedule for Sept 2023-2024.

Questions?

Contact Dr. Morgan Pinkerton, morgan0402@ufl.edu

Visit the Florida First Detector Website