Organically Controlling Cherry Fruit Sawfly

Cherry fruit sawflies are not the same thing as the cherry fruit fly. In addition, the cherry fruit sawfly affects different fruit (cherries, apricots and peaches) versus the cherry fruit fly, which affects cherries, plums and pears.

Cherry fruit sawflies are small, about one-eighth of an inch in size length. They have two pairs of transparent wings that are hooked together, with yellow appendages. These flies are wasp-like. The cherry fruit sawfly larvae is also small, about one-fourth of an inch in length. They are white with brown heads.

Organically Controlling Cherry Fruit Sawflies: Signs

Cherries, peaches and apricot tree fruit will shrivel up and drop from the tree if you have cherry fruit sawflies. Unlike the cherry fruit fly, the cherry fruit sawfly doesn't eat the fruit's interior flesh; this insect eats the fruit's seeds instead, so until the fruit is shriveled up you may not know they are present unless you see them as they attempt to bore inside the fruit in the spring.

Cherry Fruit Sawflies: From Larvae to Fly

After feeding upon the apricot, cherry or peach fruit's seeds, the larvae will exit the fruit and enter the soil to pupate as soon as the fruit falls from the tree. The larvae of cherry fruit sawflies overwinter in silken cocoons in the soil beneath the fruit tree, about 2-inches from the topsoil.

Organic Remedies for Cherry Fruit Sawflies

One organic remedy for this fruit pest is to cultivate the soil at a depth of 2-inches around the fruit tree. This will expose the larvae. Handpicking the larvae, as well as the eggs, in the spring is one organic remedy. Using sticky traps to catch the adult-sized cherry fruit sawfly is another organic option.
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Source
"The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Food Organically" by Tanya L.K. Denckla