This Freaky Fruit Fly Lays Eggs in Your Strawberries | Deep Look

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? SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! Please join our community on Patreon! DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. --- 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. --- Find a transcript and additional resources on KQED Science: --- More Great Deep Look episodes: This Killer Fungus Turns Flies into Zombies Here’s How That Annoying Fly Dodges Your Swatter --- Shoutout! 🏆Congratulations🏆 to the first 5 fans on our Deep Look Community Tab to correctly answer our GIF challenge! Ahmed Hadwan oluwatobiloba oluwafemi Ozborne Moxxie :D abloobloo --- Thank you to our Top Patreon Supporters ($10 per month)! Jessica Chris B Emrick Burt Humburg Karen Reynolds Daisuke Goto Adam Kurtz Allison & Maka Masuda David Deshpande Wild Turkey Tianxing Wang Companion Cube Mark Jobes Blanca Vides Kevin Judge Jana Brenning Aurora monoirre Roberta K Wright Anastasia Grinkevic Titania Juang Supernovabetty Syniurge Carrie Mukaida KW El Samuels Jellyman Cristen Rasmussen Scott Faunce Mehdi Nicky Orino Kristy Freeman Noreen Herrington Cindy McGill Sonia Tanlimco Kelly Hong SueEllen McCann Nicolette Ray Caitlin McDonough Laurel Przybylski Louis O’Neill Shelley Pearson Cranshaw Robert Amling Misia Clive 吳怡彰 Jeremiah Sullivan Delphine Tseng Levi Cai Silvan Joshua Murallon Robertson TierZoo Shonara Rivas Wade Tregaskis Elizabeth Ann Ditz Kenneth Fyrsterling --- Follow Deep Look and KQED Science on social: TikTok: @deeplookofficial Patreon: Instagram: Twitter: --- About KQED KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, Radio and web media. Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios. Deep Look is a project of KQED Science, the largest science and environment reporting unit in California. KQED Science is supported by the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, Campaign 21 and the members of KQED. #spottedwingdrosophila #drosophilasuzukii #deeplook