The sight of a cherry tree in your garden full of fruits whose taste you will enjoy in summer must be a wonderful and long-awaited moment. However, if you spot maggots in the cherries, it's a terrible surprise. These pests are descendants of the cherry fruit fly and can spread very quickly if you do not act immediately and take preventive measures to avoid an infestation. You can find out how to remove maggots from cherries and how you can fight cherry fruit fly in this article!
How do maggots get into cherries?
Cherry flies are about 5 mm long, have brown-striped wings, green eyes and a distinctive trapezoidal yellow dorsal shield. From the beginning of June they begin looking for suitable places to lay their eggs, with sweet cherries being their favorite. As soon as the fruits turn yellow, the females lay their eggs in them. Initially inconspicuous to the naked eye, the maggots hatch in the cherries within 10 days. They then make their way through the juicy inner part of the cherry to the pit. After about 21 days they leave the cherry, drop to the ground and bury themselves inside for the winter. In spring, the adult cherry fruit flies emerge from the soil and the cycle begins again.
How do you deal with the cherry fruit fly? The problem with them is that they multiply so quickly that simple control measures are often not sufficiently successful. If you really want them out of yourWant to sell gardenTo avoid having to remove maggots from cherries, you should use a combination of methods. You'll soon find out how to remove existing maggots from cherries and what preventive measures you can take against the invasion of the cherry fruit fly.
Methods on how to remove maggots from cherries
Typically, you won't be able to detect the presence of maggots until you cut the cherry in half. Here are some methods you can use to remove them from the fruit.
The water method: Put the fresh cherries in a bowl of water and wait for a certain time. The maggots will gradually leave the fruit and you will notice them on the surface of the water or at the bottom of the bowl. Then simply pour out the water containing the floating pests. Although this method is effective and easy to perform, it does not guarantee that you will prevent all maggots from cherries.
Container method:After picking, place the fruit in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. In the morning you will find the maggots collected on the lid.
- Notice: It is important that the container is tightly closed, otherwise the pests may escape. Like the previous method, this one does not guarantee that you will remove all maggots from cherries.
Destone: If the above methods do not produce the desired results, you can manually inspect the cherries and remove their stones. All you need is a knife to cut the fruit in half. If there are maggots in the pulp of the cherries, you can easily identify them. However, if the fruit looks too unappetizing, it's better to throw it away.
Although this is the most effective of all the methods listed so far, it is also the most labor intensive and will take you the longest time. It is also advisable to process the cherries immediately after application. Pitted cherries can also simply be washed thoroughly with water to successfully remove any remaining maggots. However, they lose a lot of juice and flavor.
- Notice: In principle, it is possible that you may eat maggots in cherries - these are not poisonous or dangerous.
Tips on how to combat cherry fruit fly
Avoiding the cherry fruit fly with suitable cherry tree varieties:The cherry fruit fly is mainly active in late May/early June. As we have already told you, she lays her eggs in the cherry trees that begin to ripen at this time. But there are also cherry varieties that are spared from the cherry fruit fly from the outset - simply because their fruits have long since ripened at this point. For this reason, early cherries are much less susceptible to cherry fruit fly infestation than normal-flowering or late cherries.
Insect nets to protect against the cherry fruit fly: If your cherry tree is not too big, you can protect its fruits with an appropriate net. You can find nets suitable for this purpose in any store with a good garden department. However, you must be careful that the seams are not too wide. They should not be larger than 1.8mm. If the holes in the net are wider, there is a risk that the cherry fly will simply slip through and still lay its eggs in the cherries.
Other ways you can combat cherry fruit flycan be found here!
