SUN JOURNAL • July 9, 2024
After a bust 2023 season for many farmers due to seemingly unending rains, Maine is dealing with a different problem this year: fruit flies, more specifically, the invasive spotted wing drosophila. Philip Fanning, University of Maine assistant professor of agricultural entomology, said. Specializing in integrated pest management, biological control and applied insect ecology, he has been tracking the flies in Maine which arrived around 2011. Joel Gilbert of Berry Fruit Farm in Livermore Falls said his farm had to cut strawberry season short mostly due to spoilage caused by the pests.