The Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) has announced that a new international technology specifically designed to fight fruit fly is being deployed across metropolitan Adelaide in an Australian first.
Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, David Basham said the Government was trialling 4,000 innovative FreeDome lures from Israel-based company Biofeed, which used a chemical formula to attract, feed and kill fruit flies.
Mr Basham said the use of Biofeed lures, the first time used in Australia, was the latest weapon in the State’s current battle against fruit fly outbreaks.
“Government met with Biofeed during a trade mission to Israel in 2019 and since then we have been in talks about how we can use this technology to help keep fruit fly out of South Australia,” Mr Basham said.
He said some residents would start to see the yellow panels of the FreeDome lures appear in their gardens.
“They are very safe, but please don’t interfere with them, just let the lures do their job,” the Minster said.
Fruit fly ecologist and founder and managing director of Biofeed, Nimrod Israely said he was confident the fruit fly solution would succeed in stopping the Adelaide outbreaks.
“As a farmer, and being a fruit grower most of my life, I am passionate about reducing the use of chemicals in agriculture,” Dr Israely said.
“This is why I developed the FreeDome technology to be highly effective, safe, for many months of continuous operation under all weather conditions, and maintenance-free,” he said.
Mr Basham said that in addition to placement across Adelaide backyards, FreeDome lures would be trialled by fruit fly entomologists at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) to scientifically test them in a controlled environment.
