Field surveys and laboratory and greenhouse experiments were conducted to study the off‐season survival mechanism and seasonal carry‐over of the sorghum shootfly,Atherigona soccata.In Kenya, active populations of the shootfly survive on tillers produced by sorghum,Sorghum bicolorstubble and wild sorghum,Sorghum arundinaceumduring the off‐season. No evidence was obtained to support the suggestion that shootflies undergo aestivation‐diapause as a mechanism of off‐season survival. There was also no indication of a higher reproductive potential for the off‐season shootflies which can account for any rapid build‐up of the population in the beginning of the sorghum‐growing season. Removal and destruction of wild sorghum and sorghum stubble after harvest would disrupt the carry‐over of the shootfly and hence may prove to be an effective cultural method of control.