The emergence of the apple maggot in Alberta has British Columbia’s commercial fruit growers on guard.
Joe Sardinha, president of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association, said the Okanagan Valley is the only maggot free commercial apple growing area in North America.
“We really don’t wish to see apple maggot here. The main thing is, do not transport the fruit interprovincially,” he said.
“That’s the main thing. What you grow in your backyard stays there or is given to family and friends in the Edmonton area and doesn’t leave for B.C.”
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Pete Volney, a plant protection officer for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said apple maggot was discovered in a backyard apple tree in Edmonton. He said the CFIA believes the infestation is confined to the Edmonton area and also advised people to avoid shipping fresh apples into B.C.
“The risk is to B.C. apple producers. They really don’t want to have this, another pest, in the orchards in B.C. and it could have an economic impact.”
Apple maggots spend the winter as pupae in the soil underneath apple or crabapple trees. Adult flies emerge in late June and lay eggs in a host fruit, mainly apples.
Twenty to 30 days later, mature larvae drop back into the soil and the cycle repeats. Egg-laying in the fruit causes dimpling and pitting, rendering the fruit unmarketable.
Sardinha said the latest pest comes at a time when B.C. has finally achieved better control of the coddling moth, a common pest in apple and pear orchards. If the apple maggot is introduced, it would be a step backward for the industry, he said.
“We’re already using far less pesticide. If we get maggots here, it will not only destroy the sterile insect release program (used to control) coddling moths, it will basically end it and we’ll have to go back to much more spraying activity for a new pest.”
Several people from the Edmonton area reported concerns after hearing CFIA radio announcements advising the public about the apple maggot.
“Several times we have sent people out to take a look at different backyard apple trees and some of them have had maggots in them but we have not had lab confirmation on them,” said Volney.
The public is asked to remove fallen apples from the ground and throw them in the garbage. Volney said there was no human health risk but “you wouldn’t want to use them because they have all these little maggots inside them.”
Volney said the CFIA would put traps around Edmonton next spring to determine the extent of the infestation.
The apple maggot occasionally attacks plum, cherry, peach, pear and hawthorn trees.
