There is no doubt that maintaining your garden while tackling the fruit fly crisis is demanding work. If you are finding it challenging, we recommend implementing one of the following two options.

Option 1: Remove any plants prone to fruit fly attack

This option is best if you don’t mind removing fruit and vegetable plants.

• Remove the plants that are prone to fruit fly attack from your garden.
• Grow plants that are not preferred by fruit flies.
• Grow small trees or shrubs in your garden instead of crop plants.

Option 2: Down-size your crop

This option is best if you still want to grow some fruit and vegetables in your garden.

• Plant less so that you can concentrate your efforts on just a few crops.
• Keep only the crop plants and trees that you really want, remove the rest (host plant removal).
• Prune fruit trees heavily and thinning out fruiting buds (pruning).
• Grow dwarf-sized varieties of fruit trees in pots for easier management.
• Grow early fruiting varieties that fruit before fruit flies become a problem.
• With fewer crops to manage, protect your crops using exclusion.