The spotted wing drosophila may look like a common fruit fly, but it’s so much worse. Just as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are ripening in the field, this fly saws into them and lays her eggs inside. The growing maggots turn the fruit into a mushy mess. Could a wasp and its own hungry maggots save the day?

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To cut into fruit and lay their eggs, female spotted wing drosophila flies use a long tool at the back of their bodies. This ovipositor has two rows of teeth that they dig into firm fruit while it’s still on the bush. The maggots that grow from the eggs ruin the fruit so that it never makes it to market.

In comparison, the common fruit fly milling about in your kitchen has a smoother, shorter ovipositor with which it can only dig into rotting fruit, like the bananas you didn’t get to.

Spotted wing drosophila are originally from East Asia and have spread around the world, helped in part by their ability to survive through a cold winter. To protect their crops, growers have to spray insecticides to kill them.

That’s why scientists are introducing a less toxic option, a parasitic wasp called Ganaspis brasiliensis, which is also from Asia. Females of this wasp lay their eggs inside the maggots of a spotted wing drosophila. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently approved the release of the wasp in the United States. Scientists are now planning large releases in California and other affected areas around the country this summer, said University of California, Berkeley, entomologist Kent Daane, who studies the insect.

--- What do spotted wing drosophila look like?
They get their name from the black spot near the tip of each of the male’s wings. Otherwise, they look fairly similar to the common fruit fly.

--- What crops do spotted wing drosophila impact?
In addition to strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, they also infest cherries and stone fruits. They’re a pest of wine grapes in places like Switzerland, though not in California.

--- How do organic berry farmers control spotted wing drosophila?
They apply pesticides approved for use in organic farming, such as spinosad, a natural substance produced by a soil bacterium. They also try to keep the flies away from their crops in the first place. For example, they cut down vegetation growing near their fields, such as invasive Himalayan blackberry plants where the flies like to live when they’re not feeding on ripening crops.

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