KEY POINTS
- Vegetable seed companies cooperate in Tasmania
- This insect is more resistant than the bee
- Although fly works and behaves like a bee
Researchers in several Australian states are trying to determine how effective flies are as alternative pollinators in crops such as avocados, mangoes, berries and vegetable seed crops.
Some vegetable seed companies have collaborated in Tasmania by mass rearing the hover fly (Eristalis tenax), which is endemic to the state.
This insect is more hairy than the bee and flies from flower to flower carrying pollen.
Unlike bees, these flies do not seem to be bothered by cloudy or stormy weather.
This particular species of fly, holds a lot of promise in different crops of interest to Tasmanian growers such as berries and cherries.
More in this report from Sotiris Kalogeropoulos.
