I bag mine as soon as the flower petals fall off. I use 8" white waxed cookie bags and a bread bag style tie wrap and punch small holes in the bag for air circulation.

Others may have found differently, but it seems like the smaller ones get stuck before a larger one. Maybe a growth period required for the Larvae?

At any rate, even if a fruit gets stuck you can tell by the milky sap leaking out of it. I leave it on the tree and so far I believe one fruit will get stuck many times and the flies leave some alone?

This is my first year growing papaya and I was told to wait for the winter to enjoy the fruit as the papaya flies aren't a problem then. No, I won't do that... I'll do whatever I have to in order to get some fruit. It's bad enough that I get ~20% male trees for all my seedling growing efforts :-)

Oh wow, thanks. Looks like I can start to cover the fruit this weekend!

Thanks for letting me know how to identify a stuck fruit. Will prevent a future question :)

My tree is a male/female plant. I know there's a word, but at this moment, my gardening vocab has already reached it's saturation point for the week :)

The funny part... I don't even know if I like papaya... I've never had it before! haha.

Happy growing!