Serious threat: Spotted Wing Fruit Flies

Yikes.

Recent news reports have indicated that this foreign (previously locally unknown) pest has the potential for turning both commercial and residential fruits (trees and berries) to mush in a very short time.

Early control is important. There have been local reports of entire
orchards (peaches in one case) becoming infested and all the fruit being ruined completely.

If you have fruit trees (apples, peaches, pears for certain -- probably others) and/or berries (raspberries, blackberries) in your yard and want to have them around to harvest this season, these sessions are at no charge and come highly recommended.

The OSU Extension Service will host two workshops on Spotted Wing Drosophila fruit fly to assist homeowners and growers of fruit crops with identification and management of this new insect pest. The dates, times and locations for the workshops are:

April 26th, 7-8:30pm. Salem Electric meeting room, 633 7th Street NW, Salem, OR

May 12th, 7-8:30pm, Academy Building Room 212, 182 SW Academy Street, Dallas, OR.

The workshops are free and open to the public. For more information, call the OSU Polk County Extension office at 503-623-8395.

Local Hero

Local hero of local profiled locally.

UPDATE: Speaking of enjoying local food, here's an encouraging story about a way to keep the sprawl monster contained and keep land in use for growing food.