California claims victory over Mediterranean fruit fly
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California declared a victory today in the battle against the annoying Mediterranean fruit fly, according to a story by Times staff writer Jerry Hirsch. The 103-square-mile Los Angeles County quarantine is no longer being enforced and will be formally lifted after paperwork is completed in a few days, the story says.
The state’s Department of Food and Agriculture said there are no remaining Mediterranean fruit fly infestations in the state, after determining them to have cleared out of Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Solano counties.
State officials used sterile male Medflies to dwindle the population and ultimately kill it off in order to end the infestation, the story says. The tactic has been used ‘almost exclusively’ since 1996.
The Mediterranean fruit fly is one of many pests that threaten agriculture and residential gardens in California. As travel and commerce increase worldwide, the variety of pests breaching the U.S. border is on the rise. State and farm officials, for example, are now concerned about the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny insect that can carry a disease that kills citrus trees. It has been discovered just blocks south of the border in Tijuana, sending shock waves through the California citrus industry.
Over the last four decades, the state has spent more than $500 million and ‘tons of insecticides’ in the effort to eradicate the exotic fruit fly, the story says. Medflies can infest more than 260 types of fruits and vegetables, laying eggs in produce and therefore making it inedible, state officials told Hirsch.
-- Tami Abdollah