Santa Ana : Once Again, Fruit Flies Grounded at Post Office

For the fourth time in three months, alert postal workers at a south Santa Ana facility have spotted a package of illegally mailed fruit containing fruit fly larvae, the state Department of Food and Agriculture announced Tuesday.

Gera Curry, spokeswoman for the department in Sacramento, said postal workers at the facility on West Sunflower Avenue found a package containing 12 pounds of fruit mailed from Hawaii on Oct. 3.

Because the package of mammea, a large, russet-colored fruit that tastes like apricots, was mailed first class and special delivery, postal workers were not allowed to open the package immediately, Curry said.

The post office sent a letter to the addressee of the package. But when no reply was received in 10 days, the package was opened and 77 live Oriental fruit fly larvae were discovered, she said. The fruit flies are considered a serious threat to the state’s multibillion-dollar agriculture industry.

Curry said the sender, who was unidentified, had spent $23.92 to mail the package of fruit first class, which is illegal under state and federal statutes. Hawaiian fruit may not be imported into California unless it is specifically cleared by agriculture officials.

“If the package hadn’t been damp and smelly, it might have gotten through,” Curry said.

She said the postal workers will be honored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture today in a brief ceremony at the post office.

In the four instances in which the postal workers at the Santa Ana center have found illegally mailed fruit carrying some kind of larvae, Curry said, they have saved the taxpayers much money. She said the state currently spends $361,000 a year for fruit-fly eradication efforts in Santa Clara, Los Angeles and Orange counties alone.

She added that as recently as 1984 the state had spent $3.7 million to combat infestation of the fruit fly throughout the state.

“Look at the money they’ve saved us. Look at the grief they’ve saved us,” Curry said.

Curry added, however, that the recent discoveries of the fruit fly larvae by the postal workers have caused concern to officials of the Department of Food and Agriculture.

“The question is: For every package that they are catching, how many are getting through?”