As winters get warmer and springtime comes earlier, farmers in states such as Maine and Minnesota are having more trouble with the flies. Warmer winters permit the fruit flies to survive and have more babies each year. They are also becoming resistant to some pesticides, which are chemicals used to kill pests.
Farmers use chemicals to kill the flies or place covers over the fruit plants to protect them. It is a lot of work, and even with the hard work, they lose 20 to 30 percent of their crop each year.
Researchers at North Carolina State University are working to solve the problem. In the laboratory, they are changing the DNA of female flies to make sure that any babies they have are not able to reproduce.
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The scientists published their work recently in a publication called the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that if they mated one of their flies with a normal fly, 99 percent of the offspring would be sterile, or not be able to reproduce.
The scientists used computer models to make predictions and found that by releasing modified flies over time, they could reduce the population of fruit flies in an area like a farm in only five months.
