Untimely End to the Raspberry Season

Sadly, we have had to end our U-Pick raspberry operation.  Wright-Locke, along with virtually every other raspberry operation in the Northeast, has been attacked by the Spotted Wing Drosophila.  The SWD is a little critter that eats the inside of the raspberry, then turns into a fly that lays more eggs in more berries.  While completely harmless to humans, they ruin the raspberries. For a while we still had many good berries, but they have now become too scarce to make hunting for them worthwhile. 

At this point in the season there is nothing we can do to save the remainder of the crop.  But now that we know we have the pest--an import from Southeast Asia that arrived on the west coast only in 2008--we will be prepared next year.  There are organic sprays that should minimize the problem, but they must be applied at the first sign of trouble.