Aerial Spraying Planned After 2 Medflies Are Found in Valley

Aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion will begin Monday in a portion of the San Fernando Valley after the discovery of two female Mediterranean fruit flies in a Northridge neighborhood, the state Department of Food and Agriculture announced Thursday.

Gov. George Deukmejian, acting on the request of the Los Angeles County agricultural commissioner, issued a local declaration of emergency so that helicopters carrying the pesticide could fly low over the target area, said Rex Magee, the department’s associate director.

Magee acknowledged that it was unusual for the state to declare an emergency after the discovery of only two fruit flies. But he said officials have reason to believe that there is a major infestation in the area.

The food-destroying flies, which prey on more than 200 varieties of produce, were found Wednesday in separate traps, one in the 9000 block of Amestoy Avenue and another in the 17000 block of Napa Street in Northridge. The two traps were about three quarters of a mile from each other.

Lure Males

Magee said these traps normally lure male flies, so the presence of two females indicates a large infestation. State officials could not immediately identify the entire area in which the spraying will take place.

County agriculture inspectors said they placed an additional 1,300 detection traps in a 100-square-mile area surrounding the discovery and said they will begin ground spraying over the next several days. However, the county has not yet established a fruit quarantine in the vicinity, as has been the case for other recent infestations.

Magee said he is confident that one aerial application of malathion will keep the fruit fly population in control until a large shipment of sterile flies can be brought to Los Angeles from the state’s breeding lab in Hawaii. By mating with the sterile male flies, the females, in effect, breed themselves out of existence.

“Once we start with the sterile flies, we shouldn’t have a problem,” Magee said.

It was only last February that county agricultural officials declared victory in their efforts to eradicate the Medfly in a 110-square-mile area of eastern Los Angeles County. A produce quarantine had been in effect there for five months. Officials theorize that the infestation began with flies that arrived on fruit shipped into California illegally or concealed by returning tourists.

Deukmejian issued the emergency declaration late Thursday as he was preparing for a departure on a two-week trade trip to Australia and Asia. In his absence, Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy would have been called on to make the decision.

The Republican governor’s predecessor, Democrat Edmund G. Brown Jr., paid a high price politically when he delayed aerial spraying in what developed into the state’s largest infestation. The eradication effort eventually cost $97.6 million and touched nine California counties, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area.