In 2009 the Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) fruit fly made its way into southwestern BC (and many other areas). It soon made its way into my home-grown cherries, raspberries, and blueberries and devastated these crops. I resorted to covering a fairly large sweet cherry tree with a floating row cover and was forced to pick and use the berries as soon as they were close to ripe in order to salvage some useable crop (knowing that fruit fly larvae were already inside). Two or three years ago I noticed that there were fewer SWD in this area (NW Burnaby). This year they appear to be completely gone, and I wonder why? Also, is this a general phenomenon or only true for this area? A brief Web search provides no answers. Have other forum members noticed this lack of SWD? If the SWD has actually disappeared for good, it would be the first time that one of the many new pests that have arrived here in the last 50 years has gone away.
