密歇根新闻广播 密歇根浆果作物遭遇新敌人果蝇入侵

The spotted¹ wing drosophila is a nasty invasive fruit fly that's turning into a nightmare for Michigan berry growers.

Blueberries and cherries are major cash crops in the state.

Kevin Robson is a horticulture specialist with the Michigan Farm Bureau. He says the fly showed up in Michigan five years ago.

Since then, it's spread across the state, hitting the berry-growing regions especially hard.

"It's going to be an all-hands-on deck approach, and that's what's going to be needed to get this under control," Robson says, "I mean, you have growers that have said that next year they might not even grow raspberries because it's such a problem, and that would be huge for the state."

Michigan State University's participating in a couple of grant-funded projects to control SWD for organic and conventional farmers.

Robson says right now, growers are monitoring and spraying their crops more often.

But the fruit fly is also frustrating² home gardeners, like me.

Two weeks ago, I realized my garden was under attack.

The worst part about this whole bug³ situation is that I can take a perfect-looking ripe raspberry — and I mean perfect — break it open, and there are these little maggots munching⁴ away.

Who would eat this? I'm not going to eat this. I don't want this added protein.

My husband Adam steps in. He tells me I'm overreacting a bit.

"You're very upset about this," he says, "You're monomaniacal about it. You are like Ahab with your white whale of flies."

But I have more bad news for him.

"Oh no," he says. "What's your bad news? Can there be more bad news?"

Peach trees. Maggots like more than just berries. They got into the peaches too.

Adam stomps⁵ over to inspect our two peach trees. To my horror, he starts ripping the fruit off.

"There's no good ones," he says, "They smell like they could've been good peaches. It's really sad."

This fruit fly — the spotted wing drosophila — typically only goes after soft-skinned fruit, like cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I'm told they also love pokeweed.

But the flies in my garden are opportunistic. They're all over my tomatoes, which have over-ripened and cracked open.

My peaches already had a couple holes in them so they were able to get at those too.

How do these invasive flies find their way into fruit?

Desperate to save my typically huge and delicious fall raspberry crop, I turn to expert Rufus Isaacs, a professor of entomology at Michigan State University. He works with Michigan's berry crops as an extension specialist. MSU has a bunch of great information on their webpage here.

Isaacs says I'm lucky spotted wing drosophila only hit me this year. They first showed up in west Michigan in 2010.

"So the big difference between this new species that's an invasive pest that came in from Asia, and all the species that we have that are here in Michigan already, is that this one has this egg-laying device that can cut into fruit while it's starting to ripen⁶," Isaacs says.

The little eggs hatch as the berries ripen. So when I break open even unripe⁷ raspberries, the tiny maggots, or larvae⁸, have already been making a meal of the berry.

"If you don't do anything and you wait until mid-September — where we are now — it's very hard to catch up," Isaacs says.

So is there anything we can do about the maggots?

Isaacs says the best thing home gardeners can do is to pick their fruit as often as possible — every day, ideally.

A couple other tricks include soaking the berries in salt water to draw out the larvae and popping them in the fridge or the freezer to stop the eggs from developing.

He says that while eating the larvae and eggs might be gross, it won't harm you.

"You know, it's personal preference whether you want to do that," he says.

In my garden, picking fruit every day has helped.

I don't have the heart to throw away these beauties, so I try not to think too much about the spotted wing drosophila I'm sure I'm eating with them.

And by the way, you don't need to be worried about this if you're buying berries at the store. Commercial growers have to meet a zero tolerance⁹ policy for bug infestations¹⁰ in Michigan.

1 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

2 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

4 munching   

v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was munching an apple. 他在津津有味地嚼着苹果。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Munching the apple as he was, he had an eye for all her movements. 他虽然啃着苹果，但却很留神地监视着她的每一个动作。 来自辞典例句

5 stomps   

v.跺脚，践踏，重踏( stomp的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• This one ends the world, stomps on it, grinds it up and spits it out. 这一部又把世界给终结了，践踏了地球，还碾压她，然后再把她吐出来。 来自互联网

6 ripen   

vt.使成熟；vi.成熟

参考例句：

• I'm waiting for the apples to ripen.我正在等待苹果成熟。
• You can ripen the tomatoes on a sunny windowsill.把西红柿放在有阳光的窗台上可以让它们成熟。

7 unripe   

adj.未成熟的；n.未成熟

参考例句：

• I was only ill once and that came of eating an unripe pear.我唯一一次生病是因为吃了未熟的梨。
• Half of the apples are unripe.一半的苹果不熟。

8 larvae   

n.幼虫

参考例句：

• Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
• The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。

9 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

10 infestations   

n.（害虫、盗贼等）群袭，出没，横行( infestation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The arrival of warm weather raises the specter of disease and increased rat infestations caused by rotting garbage. 天气转暖使人们担心垃圾腐烂会引起疾病传播和鼠群猖獗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Piperazine citrate is the drug of choice in the treatment of Ascaris infestations. 枸橼酸哌嗪治疗蛔虫感染是最好的药物。 来自辞典例句