Canada: Spotted Lantern Fly could eat into Okanagan fruit and wine industries

If the Spotted Lantern Fly gains a foothold in B.C. it could devastate the Okanagan’s fruit and wine industry. “It’s an invasive insect that loves fruit,” Dan Maja, chief bylaw enforcement officer, told the Regional District Central Okanagan Board at its Mar. 28 meeting. “Our grapes, our cherries, all fruit.” The fly is not currently in B.C. but it has landed in Ontario. The insect has also been detected in 11 U.S. states, including Pennsylvania, where it has decimated the fruit and wine. “We would like to not see that happen in the Okanagan,” Maja added. The insect was recognized as an invasive species by the federal government in 2018 and is on the ‘“to-watch list” in B.C. To make things worse, the fly’s preferred nesting ground is the Tree of Heaven, a fast-growing invasive plant brought to B.C. from China. Maja was looking for board approval to add the tree and the fly to the RDCO’s noxious plant and pest control bylaws as invasive species. “By adding Tree of Heaven as an ...