Pest Management Professional, November 2011

technicalities FRUIT FLIES Frank Meek Columnist F or a number of years or at Is a Fruit Fly Always a Fruit Fly least the 25 that Ive been in the business the small fly with the bright red eyes has been called a fruit fly Im sure that this has been going on for quite some time It makes sense though The fly hangs out around decaying or fermenting fruit vegetable products among other things It is commonly seen in food service facilities bars and many other areas Its often referred to as a fruit fly Technically speaking however the group called drosophila is not The true fruit fly is actually from the family Tephritidae Only members of this family can be properly called fruit flies Be that as it may the small drosophila is still recognized as a fruit fly within the pest control industry Unfortunately many of our clients also call every little small fly a fruit fly The most common species in the group is the Drosophila melanogastor This insect pest really has a great place in the grand scheme of things In the early 1900s T H Morgan at Columbia University began to use the common fruit fly as a model organism for genetic studies Until the fruit fly was brought into the lab Morgan had been trying to use marine invertebrates to study developmental processes He was looking for a suitable alternative that could produce high numbers of offspring develop rapidly and be raised and maintained cheaply and easily The D melanogastor fit the bill By 1912 Morgans group had isolated around 24 different mutant or diverse strains of the fruit fly These strains were then used to test and develop the chromosome theory of inherited properties The methods developed then are still used today a hundred years later as a model for mapping genes On average the D melanogastor will have a life span of 40 to 50 days Life spans as long as 80 days have been observed The egg to egg time frame can be as short as 10 or 11 days in ideal temperatures and humidity levels The adult fly is capable of producing as many as 75 eggs per day With this breeding potential you can plainly see why the fly is useful in research The fruit fly was thought to originate in West Africa but can now be found throughout the world It was first found in North America on the east coast in the 1870s around the end of the Civil War It is believed the species was introduced with the increase of the fruit trade in the U S during this period As with all pests before any control methods are undertaken the pest must be identified correctly The common fruit fly is described as being a very small insect approximately 1 8 inch 3 mm in overall length There are two commonly found species the D melanogastor or the red eyed fruit fly and D repleta the dark eyed fruit fly Both species are often found in areas containing decaying organic matter but the red eyed fruit fly is more likely to be found in areas where there is fruit and or vegetable matter in the early stages of decay or fermentation The dark eyed fruit fly is more likely to be found breeding in the biofilm material that forms on the inside of dirty drains Regardless of which species it is sanitation and removal of the breeding site is the only key to successful control So the next time you are faced with solving this problem for your customer show a little respect to the lowly common fruit fly Future scientific discoveries may very well depend on this little creature pmp You can reach Frank Meek international technical and training director for Orkin at fmeek@ rollins com The true fruit fly is from the family Tephritidae Only members of this family can be properly called fruit flies 56 November 2011 Pest Management Professional mypmp net