Protecting BC Apples Naturally: The Sterile Insect Release Program
A pioneering approach to protecting orchards and reducing pesticide use.
Growing great apples takes more than sunshine, water and good soil. It also takes careful management of pests that can threaten an entire crop. In British Columbia’s Okanagan, Similkameen and Shuswap Valleys, apple growers have access to one of the world’s most innovative approaches to managing one of their most damaging pests: the codling moth.
The Okanagan-Kootenay Sterile Insect Release (SIR) Program is an area-wide pest management program designed to reduce codling moth populations while helping decrease the need for pesticide applications. The program has been operating in the region since the early 1990s and works alongside BC growers, residents and local governments to protect the region’s fruit industry.
An effective and environmentally friendly approach to pest management
Codling moth is a small moth whose larvae can burrow into apples and pears, damaging fruit from the inside and making it unfit for sale. Left unmanaged, codling moths can cause significant crop losses. Instead of relying solely on conventional insecticides, the SIR Program uses the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which has been sometimes described as a method of “birth control for insects.” Here is how it works:
Sterile male codling moths are produced at the program’s rearing facility in Osoyoos and released into orchards throughout the growing season. When sterile moths mate with wild females, the resulting eggs cannot produce viable offspring. Over time, this reduces the number of wild codling moths in the region. The sterile moths are released throughout all pear and apple orchards on a regular basis, creating a regional approach rather than treating individual farms in isolation. This area-wide strategy is important because codling moths do not recognize property lines as they move between commercial orchards, backyard trees and other host plants.
Decades of results
The SIR Program has made a measurable difference. Since the program began, wild codling moth populations have been reduced by approximately 94%. Before the program began, growers had to spray multiple times every season to control the codling moth.
Today, the vast majority of growers do not spray at all to control this pest, reducing pesticide usage by thousands of pounds of every year Today, the program covers fruit-growing areas stretching from Salmon Arm to Osoyoos, supporting commercial orchards and communities throughout the Southern Interior of BC. The program operates as part of an integrated pest management approach, combining sterile insect releases with monitoring, orchard sanitation and other pest management practices when necessary.
Better for growers. Better for the environment.
The SIR Program demonstrates how science, innovation and cooperation come together to protect BC agriculture. By suppressing codling moth populations across an entire region, the program helps growers produce high-quality apples while reducing their reliance on pesticides.
For consumers, it is another part of the story behind Fresh BC Apples: apples grown by BC farmers using innovative, science-based practices designed to protect both the crop and the environment. When you enjoy a BC apple, you’re enjoying the result of generations of farming knowledge combined with some pretty remarkable science.
