Page 56 - Grapevine JanFeb 2022
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Around The Vineyard
Using a small mesh cage to infest a grape
cluster with SWD; Dominique Ebbenga,
PhD candidate, Dept. of Entomology, UMN.
What Spotted Wing Drosophila
Means for the Wine Industry
By: Annie Klodd, University of Minnesota Extension
I fly spotted wing drosophila (SWD), this is the problem is SWD, really, for vineyards? Is it actually
n case you haven’t heard about invasive fruit
any worse for grapes than other fruit flies?
infamous pest that pierces the skin of soft
fruits like raspberries and strawberries to lay eggs For SWD to impact grapes like it does to other
inside. It costs the US fresh berry industry millions soft berries, it would have to be able to pierce the
of dollars each year. grapes’ skin and lay eggs inside. But grape skin may
be just thick enough to deter them. Entomology
As viticulturists whose businesses rely on high researchers at University of Minnesota recently
quality fruit, we may be tempted to assume that published a study that found that out of 34 differ-
SWD will also decimate our vineyards in the same ent cold climate hybrid and vinifera grape varieties,
way it does berries. However, this might be a poor SWD was only able to pierce the skin of 4 varieties.
assumption that causes us to spend more on insec-
ticides with no real benefit. SWD is more likely to impact vineyards by intro-
ducing sour-rot causing bacteria to split or injure
The question I will explore today is: How big of a grapes. However, common fruit flies already do
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