What's eating my kadota fig?

Kadota fig, a light-green commercial variety grown in warm climates, is highly attractive to dried-fruit beetles and spotted-wing drosophila entering via the open eye, as well as birds. Its thin-skinned ripe fruit is particularly vulnerable. Eye-closure cultivars like Brown Turkey suffer less, but Kadota's open eye makes insect entry a key management issue.

Beetles enter through the open fig eye, fermenting fruit from inside; interior becomes mushy and sour-smelling before external symptoms appear Harvest promptly when figs are fully ripe; remove and destroy all dropped fruit; use bait traps around the canopy in summer

Females lay eggs inside softening fruit through the eye; larvae cause internal breakdown and secondary fungal infection Fine mesh netting over the canopy during ripening; spinosad-based baits placed around (not on) the tree; timely harvest

Fruit pecked open at the eye end or removed entirely from branches; light-coloured Kadota figs attract birds readily once soft Bird netting over ripening fruit clusters; harvest daily; reflective scare tape offers short-term deterrence

Pale stippling and bronzing of leaves; fine silk webbing visible on undersides in heavy infestations Overhead irrigation reduces mite populations; apply neem oil or insecticidal soap to undersides of leaves in early morning