How to stop bugs eating my Guava fruit?

[AlejoGC]

 

  

As you can see my white guava fruit are being infested by grubs and bugs. Any suggestions as to how I can stop the critters before they infest the fruit would be greatly appreciated. I had been spraying Yates Nature’s Way FruitFly Control to see if I could mitigate infestation before the fruit started to grow but alas, I failed.

 

 

[KatieC]

Hi @AlejoGC,

I am sorry to hear that bugs are getting to eat your guava fruit and not you. Our resident DIY expert @EricL will be back online later this afternoon, but in the meantime let me tag our fantastic garden members @Nham, @Noelle, and @Adam_W to see if they have any suggestions. 

I hope we are able to help you get rid of your bugs so you can start enjoying the fruits of your labour.   

Katie

[EricL]

Hello @AlejoGC 

Those guava fruits look quite big, it's a shame that insects got to it first. I suggest spraying your guava tree with Eco-Organic Garden 500ml Eco-Oil Concentrate. It is an organic insecticide and kills a host of insects but also attracts beneficial predatory insects (like lady beetles) into your garden. 

However, if you wish to avoid using insecticides, I suggest using a small re-sealable plastic sandwich bag. You can seal the young fruit in the bag to protect it from predatory insects. Press the seal of the bag all the way up to the stem and staple the sides near the fruit stem to prevent the bag from opening up. Cut a small piece at the corners of the bag to allow moisture build to drip out. I've placed an image below to give you an idea of how the bag is supposed to be attached.

Let me call on our experienced members @Noelle and @Adam_W for their recommendations.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[AlejoGC]

Thank you kindly for sending through this great information.

[AlejoGC]

Thank you kindly KatieC

[Nham]

Hi @AlejoGC 

We had the same problem and tried spraying and fruit fly traps, nothing worked. At one stage, we even had a king parrot eating the fruit!. Then a friend just recommended putting a net over the tree. It worked great and for the last 2-3 years all the fruit were all fine to eat. We got the netting from Bunnings as well.

Cover the whole treeGuava fruit ready in a few weeks

[MitchellMc]

Thanks for the tip @Nham! I'm sure @AlejoGC appreciates it.

I'm interested to hear that this gauge netting was effective at stopping fruit fly. It appears you've used something like this Cyclone 4m x 10m x 5mm Backyard Farmer Anti Bird Net with 5mm holes. I would have thought the fruit fly would fly straight through that. Perhaps the hole is small enough to interrupt their flight path significantly? We also have this Cyclone 4m x 4m x 2mm Backyard Farmer Anti Insect Net with a 2mm hole that should also be very effective.

Mitchell

[Nham]

Hi @MitchellMc,

You are spot on, that is the netting we used. At first I was also sceptical, the 5mm openings are just wide enough for the fruit flies. I think you suggestion that it affects their flight path may be right. I was curious and started watching some of the fruit flies. They fly close to the net, hover, move around and then fly off. Some land on the netting then fly off after a while. 

Nham 

[Walter]

Hey @Nham  and everyone else,

Yep, that's the netting I use on my Strawberry Guava, and this years bumper crop is astonishing. 

When the guava hasn't fruited, I use the netting on other things (tomato, strawberry, boysenberry) because it also keeps the birds down to a minimum and I always have a spare net in the shed.

Mind you, it doesn't stop the lizards that I have to share my strawberries with. I didn't realise lizards have learned to eat strawberries. I can live with that, they don't take many - I just have to be quicker than them