The regional monitoring program is being conducted in berry and stone fruit crops and grapes in Essex, Chatham-Kent, Elgin, Norfolk, Halton, Oxford, Niagara and Durham counties. This post provides information regarding trap catches June 12-19.
The monitoring project is funded by Niagara Peninsula Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, Ontario Grape and Wine Research and Ontario Tender Fruit Growers in collaboration with private consultants.
Traps were first deployed in south Niagara in berry blocks starting May 18 and other sites have been and will continue to be gradually added. We have placed 4 traps with commercial SWD lures at each site. Use these results in addition to your own monitoring program to determine when SWD is present on your farm. Conduct a salt water test or a plastic baggie test to confirm presence of larvae in fruit.
SWD has been detected in all the monitoring counties with a significant jump in trap catch in Essex and a relatively high number in the first report from Kent. Compared to this period 2019, numbers are higher in Essex and Chatham-Kent and earlier but still low in Niagara, Norfolk and Elgin. Once sustained catch occurs (two weeks in a row with SWD) growers with ripening crops susceptible to SWD should consider using a product with activity against SWD in preharvest sprays.
We did a salt water test on berries from one site in Niagara and did not find any SWD larvae. We will expand fruit testing to include more sites in future weeks.
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