KELOWNA, B.C. – The best agricultural minds in British Columbia are having a war council Nov. 18 to plan how to combat an invading enemy less than a centimetre long.
The best they can hope for is a stalemate, to keep the spotted wing drosophila, (SWD) which was first spotted in B.C. last year, from des-troying parts of the $40 billion agricultural industry.
Joe Sardinha, president of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association, calls the SWD, the WMD – weapon of mass destruction.
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“The problem is bigger than expected,” said the Summerland apple grower.
The pest native to southeastern Asia, also called the vinegar fly, infests thin-skinned fruit, such as cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and plums, as well as grapes and berries. It lays its eggs inside fruit just before harvest, turning it soft and mushy.
“It’s a much larger threat than the coddling moth because we have the SIR – sterile insect release – program and there are a whole battery of effective products to deal with coddling moth, yet with spotted wing drosophila, we have this limited selection of products,” Sardinha said.
“A lot of independent growers are unaware of this problem and they’re unwittingly creating a bigger problem by doing their own packing and having piles of dumped fruit, which is an absolute breeding ground. Sanitation is going to be extremely important.”
While some independent growers might have packed infested fruit, the BCFGA packinghouse rejected a million pounds of cherries.
“We have zero tolerance,” said Adrian Abbot, marketing director for B.C. Tree Fruits, the BCFGA’s marketing arm.
“We have to make sure fruit being packed for the fresh market has not been impacted by this particular pest.
“For us, it’s protection of the B.C. brand. There’s a significant risk to the industry if we can’t figure out how to get this under control.”
Oliver grower Greg Norton, president of the Okanagan Kootenay Cherry Association, is concerned not only about growers unaware of the problem but also that the fly will infest grapes.
“We have 3,000 acres of cherries, but 10,000 acres of grapes.
“I predicted this would be the year of the bug, but it turns out we didn’t come close to representing reality; we should have been a lot more aggressive.”
Agriculture ministry entomologist Tracy Hueppelsheuser is aware how big a problem the fly poses, but is optimistic it can be dealt with.
“Based on what we saw this year, it appears to be manageable, but you need to take several different approaches and you can’t rely on only one. You have to be manage it from springtime to harvest.”
Hueppelsheuser thinks knowledge and communication are important weapons in the growers’ arsenal because if they maintain good practices and their neighbours are unaware of the problem, the fly will gain ground.
Debbie Etsell, acting executive director of the 650-member B.C. Blueberry Council with 17,000 acres under cultivation, agrees being proactive can make a big problem a little smaller.
“The blueberry council was made aware of it late last September (2009), so we were proactive in monitoring for when and if it showed up and this made us made much more prepared and helped minimize the impact.
“It was manageable with government-approved sprays, but timing was crucial.”
She has been told the pest will not likely be eradicated, but it can be controlled.
“We are getting more networking with other growers and regions and it will enable us to manage it even better. It’s not just a B.C. or West Coast problem; it has showed up in Florida and Michigan.”
Fly management
•Clean up leftover and fallen fruit
•Do not compost fruit
•If numbers are high, use insecticides registered for home use containing pyrethroids or spinosyns
•Grocers should dispose of rotting fruit by either burying, tying up in plastic bags before disposal, or putting all rotten fruit through a garburator
Source: B.C. Agriculture
