Medfly Battle Bogs Down

The official invasion of the sex lives of Mediterranean fruit flies was at a standstill today because agricultural officials ran out of the sterile flies they had been releasing to mate with the crop-destroying insects in the San Fernando Valley.

Problems in scheduling deliveries of the insects from the Honolulu laboratory where they are bred was blamed for the shortage. State agriculture officials said they will not have mature flies to release until Friday because they did not receive shipments of sterile insect pupae last Saturday or Sunday. Four million flies already have been let go.