Two Medflies Discovered in County; New Traps Placed

Two female Mediterranean fruit flies have been found in monitoring traps three miles apart in Maywood and on the Eastside of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County’s top agricultural official said Thursday.

The latest discovery, on Wednesday in Maywood, prompted county officials to set hundreds of new traps and to plan for limited ground spraying of malathion pesticide if more of the crop-killing pests turn up. The first Medfly was found July 27 on Dacotah Street, south of Boyle Heights. Both traps were set in peach trees in private yards.

County Agricultural Commissioner Paul B. Engler said officials are concerned because of the proximity of the finds.

“Had they been widely spread, we would have considered them independent. . . .” Engler said. “Since they were within three miles of each other, we feel there is a correlation.”

Range of Climates

Mediterranean fruit flies are especially dangerous, Engler said, because they prey on more than 200 varieties of produce, reproduce quickly and can survive in a range of climates. A statewide Medfly infestation in 1981-82 caused an estimated $73 million in crop damage and cost nearly $100 million to eradicate.

“Our big risk is quarantine . . . ,” Engler said.

If an infestation breaks out, federal authorities have the power to block the sale of produce from the affected region. That, Engler said, would pose a serious economic threat to California’s $14-billion-a-year agriculture industry.

County workers have begun setting more than 900 new Medfly traps in a 25-square-mile area surrounding the yard on 61st Street in Maywood where the fruit fly was caught. Additional traps were also set on the Eastside, but no more Medflies have been found there, Engler said.

If more pests are discovered, Engler said, county workers will begin spraying malathion on trees that bear infested fruit.

“There is no reason to spray an entire yard,” Engler said.

In addition, officials will consider whether to order the production of thousands of sterile male Medflies that could be used in a mass birth-control program.

“They literally breed themselves out of existence,” Engler said. “They mate, but there is no reproduction.”

First Discovered

The two Medflies were the first discovered in Los Angeles County since last December, when a single male was trapped in West Los Angeles, Engler said. Before that, only one other Medfly had been spotted in the county since the statewide infestation.

In the last two weeks, county workers have trapped three other rare fruit flies. An African pumpkin fly was found in Cerritos on Aug. 3, a guava fruit fly was discovered in West Los Angeles on Aug. 6 and an as yet unidentified species was trapped in Granada Hills the same day.

Gera Curry, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture, said she believes that “there is a more than casual relationship” between the recent fruit fly trappings and the repeated discovery by postal officials of live fruit fly larvae in packages of fruit mailed illegally from Hawaii.

“People tend to want to be clever by outsmarting the system by smuggling in a piece of fruit (through the mails),” Curry said. “A single piece of contraband fruit can start an infestation, and that’s not clever at all.”

Discovered by Workers

Curry said workers in the Santa Ana Post Office in the last year have discovered more than 200 live fruit fly larvae in packages shipped from Hawaii.

“How many got through undetected, not only there, but in post offices all over the state?” she asked.

Los Angeles County maintains about 15,000 traps for various types of fruit flies. The program began after the 1982 infestation.