Santa Ana : Larvae of Fruit Fly Discovered in Package

The discovery this week of guavas infested with Oriental fruit fly larvae in a package mailed to the central post office has prompted county and federal agricultural officials to sound a warning about potential infestations.

Postal workers at the Santa Ana office, who have been credited with intercepting other fruit flies and Medflies twice during the last four months, spotted the rotting fruit in a package from Hawaii last weekend.

“They ought to get medals down there,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Gera Curry. “But sharp as they are, there’s got to be a lot getting through.”

The postal workers notified the person who was to receive the package and then turned it over to county agricultural officials, who found 78 fruit fly larvae in four guavas, said district inspector Travis McRoberts. He said two other types of fruit in the carton, mailed to Garden Grove, were not infested.

McRoberts said people who want to send fruit from Hawaii or other spots overseas should take the goods to U.S. Department of Agriculture officials for inspection and treatment first.

McRoberts noted that two flies have been discovered in Orange County traps this year, five in San Bernardino County and three in Los Angeles County.

“They’re hitchhikers because they don’t originate here, and we don’t find them in Mexico or Canada,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture intends to track down the sender of the package and impose a fine, Curry said. She said that the law provides for only a $100 fine and that the cost of enforcement is more than that.

“A thousand dollars would be more appropriate,” she said.

The threat of infestation by fruit flies is great because of the female’s prolific reproduction rate.

“The female fruit fly can lay up to 1,500 eggs in her lifetime, which can last from one to three months,” Curry said.

County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Wayne Appel said the second fruit fly caught in Orange County was found in an Anaheim trap last week. The first was snared in Huntington Beach last July.

Two flies don’t constitute an infestation, he said, but it does indicate that fruit is getting through. There was only one fruit fly discovered in Orange County in 1985, although six Orange County cities were placed under quarantine when 51 flies were found in Long Beach traps.