Rob Sonogan never had much of a problem with fruit flies – until this year.
He grows citrus, fruit trees and vegetables on his 40-acre hobby farm at Castle Donnington.
But Mr Sonogan has lost 80 per cent of his apricots and 50 per cent of his blood plums to fruit flies.
He believes the “whole fruit fly program is failing”.
“I have almost never had a fruit fly problem until this year,” he said.
“The flies are absolutely swarming to our area from somewhere else. We can only point the finger at Swan Hill and people in town with fruit trees who don’t maintain them.
“What irks me is that I walk down the street in Swan Hill and see houses with rotting fruit just lying on the ground.”
Mr Sonogan notes that one property on Rutherford Street has “hundreds of rotting fruit on the footpath and is probably producing thousands of fruit flies”.
“It’s just sitting there on the footpath and has been rotting there for weeks,” he said.
Free fruit fly traps were given out in November and new ones won’t be issued until February.
To read more about this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (January 13).
