Program to Rid Florida of Medfly Called Success

A program to rid Florida of the Mediterranean fruit fly has succeeded and a quarantine on shipments of fruit from the previously infested area has been lifted, the state agriculture commissioner said Tuesday.

Agriculture officials had imposed a quarantine on 110 square miles in northern Dade County surrounding traps where three female flies were found last spring. Trap inspections in recent weeks turned up no additional flies. “We have indeed eradicated the Medfly from the state of Florida,” Commissioner Doyle Conner said.