Fruit spotting bugs

• Know your region: FSB are found in coastal and sub‑coastal areas of northern NSW.
• Prepare early: Start preparations before the fruiting season. Ensure your farm or garden is regularly monitored.
• Train your team: Make sure staff or volunteers can identify FSB and understand reporting protocols.
• Plan management: Work out pest control timing based on crop phenology (flowering and fruit set).
• Prepare materials: Have monitoring and control tools ready: sticky traps, sweep nets, approved pesticides, and historical records.

FSB feed on young fruit, flowers and shoots, causing:

• Dimples and sunken spots on fruit
• Malformed, split, or prematurely dropped fruit
• Discolored patches and surface blemishes
• Poor nut fill and shell splitting in macadamias
• Misshapen, shriveled fruit in avocados and other soft fruits

• Native Australian insects, living primarily in rainforest regions from ~30° latitude north, now spread into horticultural areas.
• Adults are about 10–14 mm long, mottled green and brown with darker markings.
• Nymphs (juveniles): smaller, wingless, pale green or reddish; resemble miniature adults.
• All life stages are sharp-sucking feeders: piercing young plant tissue and extracting sap.

• Visual scouting: Look for bugs on fruit and young shoots. Check early in the day when they are less active.
• Sticky traps: Yellow sticky traps placed in canopy can capture adults. Check and replace weekly.
• Beat sheets or sweep nets: Shake foliage and collect insects—especially nymph stages.
• Record findings: Maintain logs of trap captures, sightings, crop stage, and environmental conditions.

• Cultural controls:
  • Remove alternate hosts (weedy rainforest plants) near orchards.
  • Use protective exclusion nets around high‑value crops where feasible.
• Chemical controls:
  • Apply approved insecticides—timed to target nymph stages before fruit development.
  • Follow label rates and withholding periods diligently.
  • Rotate active ingredients to prevent resistance.
• Biological control:
  • Encourage natural predators (e.g. lacewings, parasitic wasps).
  • Avoid broad-spectrum insecticides during active predator presence.
• Spot treatments:
  • For small infestations, hand‑pick adults or knock them off into containers for disposal.

• Critical timing: Monitor and manage during shell hardening, especially early nut development.
• Damage signs: Small nuts with hollow or aborted interiors, shell blemishes, clustering at tree extremities.
• Action plan:
  • Conduct scouting twice weekly through flowering and early nut set.
  • Apply targeted sprays during high‑risk windows, guided by monitoring data.
  • Use exclusion netting on small blocks or high‑value trees where stomp early damage is recurring.

• High vulnerability: Avocados are particularly susceptible in early fruit growth (pea to golf‑ball size).
• Damage signs: Small sunken spots, mottled skin, early fruit drop, misshapen or scarred fruit.
• Management approach:
  • Begin monitoring at flowering and maintain through early fruit set.
  • Use sticky traps within the canopy to gauge adult pressure.
  • Apply insecticide just before peak egg-laying and early nymph stages.
  • Consider inter-row refuge planting (e.g., nectar plants) to support predator populations.