News

Record fruit fly trap rollout

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 05:44:00

Households in the Mildura, Wentworth, Swan Hill and Robinvale municipalities are being urged to get behind the biggest fruit fly trapping exercise ever undertaken in Australia beginning now.

The mass trapping exercise aims to saturate urban areas with traps for male and female Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) in a concerted campaign to reduce numbers and damage resulting from the pest.
The campaign is being coordinated by the Greater Sunraysia Pest Free Area Industry Development Committee, and comes after a successful trial at Swan Hill last year.
“Our aim is to have the non-invasive traps in every residential garden in the urban areas,” the development committee’s chairman Paul Grigg said.
“It’s a huge task, but we know from the initial Swan Hill experience last year and repeated during July, that strong community cooperation will achieve impressive results in reducing fruit fly numbers,” he said.
“The key to success will be the support of residents and their willingness to be part of the solution to a problem that costs our horticultural industries heavily.”
The Greater Sunraysia Pest Free Area includes the horticultural areas from Mildura and Wentworth to Kerang.  The Pest Free Area Committee collects and administers levies applied to citrus, stone fruit and table grapes to fund services aimed at reinstating and maintaining the Pest Free Area.
The mass trapping program is being rolled out across the Pest Free Area.  The distribution of traps has been completed in Swan Hill and will continue through the Robinvale and Euston areas in August and Mildura and Wentworth municipalities during September.  The Sunraysia rollout is in collaboration with the Mildura Rural City Council, the Wentworth Shire Council and the Swan Hill Rural City Council and funded by the Victorian Government.
Mr Grigg said the mass trapping exercise would be undertaken by appropriate local community groups, who would distribute the traps as a fundraising exercise.  He said the program would be backed up by education and awareness activities.
“Many of our towns and urban areas in the Pest Free Area now have micro climates that are conducive to the flies’ breeding and survival,” he said.
“We are developing an awareness campaign for all the stakeholders in the process – including agronomists, packers, growers, residents and agricultural retailers – on how fruit fly risk can be managed on properties. 
“That will be backed up with targetted compliance and surveillance activities.”
The campaign will include:
• Information for home gardeners will about how to protect their home grown produce from the threat of QFF
• An education program to be developed for schools to promote the QFF message, and strengthen the link between farms and the community
• Colouring competitions to help raise and promote awareness
A website www.pestfreearea.com.au for commercial growers will be live from Friday 21st August 2015.
Residents who have questions or wish to report a fruit fly incursion should contact the GSPFAIDC on email: idc@greatersunraysiapfa.com.au.