How Can I Help?

I’m travelling into the Yarra Valley

Travelers should not to bring fresh produce into the Yarra Valley, especially from unverified sources.

• All fruit and veggies should be cooked or frozen if it is bought into a fruit fly sensitive area like the Yarra Valley
• Eat it, Bin it or Bag it – infested fruit should be destroyed
• Infested fruit is hard to see, check inside for larvae or maggots

I’m a resident of the Yarra Valley

• Prune trees to a reachable height –fruit higher than this are hard to reach and pick – unpicked ripe fruit is a huge risk.
• Pick all fruit as it ripens, ripe fruit is what the fruit fly is looking for to breed. Never let infested fruit drop in the ground.
• Pick up dropped ripe fruit and bag it to solarise it (a strong sealed bag left in the hot sun) incase it is infested with QFF larvae.
• If anyone brings fruit to your home – inspect it thoroughly in a safe location – with a bin near by. If suspicious, treat it immediately to destroy any larvae that might be hiding inside it.
• Infested fruit and vegetables need to be microwaved OR frozen before binning in a sealed bag to destroy any larvae.
• The composting allows any living larvae to pupate and develop into the adult QFF – best avoided.
• Remove unwanted and unmanaged host plants – a host plant is anything that has fruit on it each year that can’t be picked – ornamental fruit trees too.
• If you have a host plant near you on land that is managed by local council,  Agriculture Victoria, DWELP or Melbourne Water or Vicroads – report this to the relevant body or land manager to encourage the removal of this host plant.
• Encourage a collaborative effort with your neighbours to remove risk and share knowledge.
• In regions that have to manage Queensland fruit fly, exclusion nets and cover sprays are used alongside trapping and baiting programs – we want to avoid this expense and chemical use, and keep our region fruit fly free.

I’m a commercial fruit & veggie producer in the Yarra Valley

• Practice good farm biosecurity and put measures in place to reduce risk
• Limit host fruit and vegies imported on to the farm, by your business, your labour force, and your visitors
• Know the origin of the produce – both the produce and the container from QFF areas are a high risk because the infestation is likely and also hard to see
• Install QFF monitoring trap(s), monitor weekly and share the results with neighbours, land managers, industry bodies, regional coordinator, agronomists and DEDJTR
• Remove potential host plants around the production area of the farm, i.e. fruit trees not in commercial production that are not managed, includes blackberries, prunus species, figs, prickly pear, quinces, citrus and apples etc.
• Remove potential host plants near by – If you have a host plant near you on land that is managed by local council, DJPR/DWELP, Melbourne Water or Vicroads – report this to the relevant body or land manager to encourage the removal of this plant, or an appropriate management strategy
• Minimise, destroy or remove ripe fruit left on trees or ripe vegies left in the paddock that are waste fruit. Pest and disease build up can increase the pressure in the following year
• Take infested waste produce off farm away from the production and packing area.