ASERIOUS new pest of sweet cherries, berries, and potentially other thin-skinned fruit crops has California growers worried. Several hundred growers, pest control advisers (PCA), and other industry personnel attended a hearing in Stockton last month to learn more about the new pest. Unfortunately, the pest is so new to the state that the hearing provided more questions than answers, starting with what to call it. (See "The Name Game.") What they do know is the pest, Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD), wasoriginally called a vinegar fly because it is similar to other drosophila that go after rotting fruit, the California Department of Food and Agriculture's (CDFA) primary state entomologist, Kevin Hoffman, told the audience. But this pest also attacks ripe and ripening fruit once the fruit reaches an as-yet unknown Brix.
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