Caught in the act: Caribbean fruit fly

Caribbean fruit fly on green guava

With the recent outbreak of Mediterranean fruit fly here in Palm Beach County, I've been worried about the fruit flies in my own yard. I really wanted to make sure they were not med fly.

Today, I set out with my camera stalking around the variegated guava. I had no problem spotting them, there were many of them all over the guavas ! I don't know if the variegated guavas have a very tough skin, but so far only a few of them have been infested with very small larvae.

My pictures confirm these are Caribbean fruit fly, the bane of every South Florida fruit grower.

I was ably to squash the last one while it has its ovipository inserted, even when it was dead, and I tried to pull it out, it broke off inside the guava. This means they have very sharp nasty ovipositories and explains why they infest so many fruit.

Squashed Caribbean fruit fly with stinger caught in guava