Fly Swatted : Officials Declare Victory in 5-Month War Against Pest

Declaring victory in their latest struggle to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly, agriculture officials on Friday lifted a produce quarantine that had been in effect for five months over 110 square miles of eastern Los Angeles County.

The food-destroying pest, first discovered in East Los Angeles last summer, was wiped out by two aerial applications of malathion bait and the release of more than 700 million sterile Medflies in what amounted to a massive birth-control program, county Agricultural Commissioner Paul B. Engler said.

“One down and two to go,” said Engler at a press conference downtown.

Home gardeners and produce businesses must still observe a quarantine in effect in a 170-square-mile area of western Los Angeles County, where peach and melon fruit flies were found after the Medfly discovery.

The Medfly operation, which cost $2 million in state and federal funds, was described as “almost letter-perfect” by Engler, who wore a button that said: “Don’t Bug Me--Don’t Bring Uninspected Fruit Into California . . . Please.”

The infestation probably began with flies that arrived on fruit shipped into California illegally through the mails or concealed by returning tourists.

The sterile male flies, produced in a state Agriculture Department lab in Hawaii, were released between Aug. 31 and Nov. 17 in the restricted area, bounded on the north by the Santa Monica and Pomona freeways, the west by Central Avenue, the south by Imperial Highway and the east by Lakewood and Montebello boulevards.

By mating with the sterile males, female Medflies in effect breed themselves out of existence.

The Medfly is considered a “super pest” because it preys on more than 200 varieties of produce, reproduces rapidly and survives in a range of climates.

The end of the Medfly quarantine means that the sale of produce by street vendors is no longer banned and nurseries are no longer required to strip fruit and treat potted plants and trees in the restricted area.

Engler contrasted the speed of the recent Medfly operation with the eradication project of 1981-82, which was delayed by debate over spraying and eventually cost more than $100 million. California growers lost an additional $100 million in fresh fruit sales because of the 1981-82 quarantine, which covered seven counties in the state.

Dan Haley, the chief deputy of the state Food and Agriculture Department, called the current eradication effort “a prime example of government, science, technology and an informed citizenry working together for the common good.”

Gera Curry, spokeswoman the department, pointed out that the best protection against fruit-fly incursions is a responsible citizenry.

“Every time someone thinks he’s pulled a fast one by sneaking in, say, an unfumigated papaya from Hawaii,” she said, “he should remember that there may be helicopters spraying malathion over his house a few weeks later.”