Fruit Flies Eradicated; State Lifts Quarantine

A six-month quarantine on fruits and vegetables grown in parts of Orange County has been lifted after the eradication of an infestation of Oriental fruit flies, state agricultural officials said Monday.

The quarantine, in place since Oct. 1, banned individuals from moving 17 kinds of fruits and vegetables out of the area.

Produce grown commercially in a 78-square mile area of the county--including Santa Ana, Tustin, Orange, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley and Costa Mesa--was subject to inspection before it could be transported out of the area.

Produce such as avocados, oranges, grapefruit, limes, lemons and tomatoes are destroyed by larvae which hatch from fruit fly eggs laid inside the produce.

Eleven Oriental fruit flies have been trapped in the county since Sept. 23, according to Gera Curry, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture. The last fly was captured Nov. 23, but state officials waited until Saturday to lift the quarantine to be sure that the infestation was eliminated.

The flies were eradicated through the use of a procedure known as “male annihilation,” in which a pesticide is mixed with a bait that attracts male flies and then applied to utility poles, trees and fence posts.

“He (the fly) thinks there’s a female there,” Curry said. “But when he gets up there, he doesn’t find a fly; he finds this stuff, and it kills him. You kill off all the males, and there are no progeny.”

Curry said the state believes that this infestation and other recent fruit fly problems were caused by the illegal importation of exotic tropical fruits from Hawaii. She said 14 packages containing rotting, infested fruit from Hawaii were intercepted in Santa Ana during a one-year period in 1986 and 1987.

“This is the single strongest pathway that brings infestations and reinfestations of these things,” Curry said. “We get rid of them, and then we turn around and they’re here again.”