Fruit pest prevalence prompts regional district reminder

PENTICTON – As cherry season peaks in the South Okanagan, backyard fruit growers are being reminded to be vigilant about controlling fruit tree pests.

The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen has had a bylaw in place since 2001 for all rural electoral areas and the Town of Oliver requiring residents with cherry trees to control such pests as the Western Cherry Fruit Fly and the Spotted Wing Drosophila.

The bylaw was put in place to protect other residential growers as well as to help protect the commercial industry to control the pests.

Public Works Coordinator Zoe Kirk is concerned growers – both backyard and professional – will not deal with fruit tree waste properly.

Kirk says in a media release it is extremely important to keep waste and infected fruit out of the green stream, offering the following method for controlling disposal of waste products from the orchard.

He says the waste has to be delivered to the landfill, using a procedure of double-bagging the waste and leaving it in the sun for three days to kill the larvae.

Kirk says the fruit grower should then contact the landfill or call the regional district to find out how they would like it presented, adding commercial growers need to let the landfill know ahead of time so they can prepare a big enough hole in the landfill’s garbage zone in which to bury the waste.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.