Spotted Wing Drosophila | Spiders 7/7/2023

Anya Osatuke tells us what do about spotted wing drosophila eating berries in our gardens. Dr. Linda Rayor talks about why spiders are in our homes, and what we should do when we find them there.


Spotted wing drosophila links and Q&A:

How to do a salt water test to check for spotted wing drosophila in fruit: https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.e...

Q: Is it easy to distinguish spotted wing drosophila from other fruit flies when you are trapping them?
A: Yes. SWD are a pale golden brown color, while other fruit flies are usually darker brown. Male SWD have that single black spot at the far part of each wing. Females don’t have that spot. Here is a resource with pictures: https://www.canr.msu.edu/ipm/uploads/...


Spiders in the home links and Q&A:

For more information on spiders and other arachnids -    • Arachnid Diversity - Eight-legged Diversit...  

Q: What are some examples of the pest insects spiders eat?
A: Spiders eat almost everything that are small enough for them to catch. So true bugs, flying insects like moths, flies, mosquitos, aphids, and some pollinators, grasshoppers, caterpillars. So very much everything that they can handle. What they don’t like are toxic or particularly dangerous prey like ants or chemically defended animals, they also don’t do particularly well with many beetles because their exoskeleton is too hard to pierce.