Westsiders Wash Fly Spray Down Drain

From Beverly Hills to Culver City, people crowded into carwashes and hosed down their driveways Friday after three helicopters doused the Westside with pesticide-laced bait, and agricultural officials moved into the second phase of their war on Mediterranean fruit flies.

Fighting what they called a significant infestation of the fruit-destroying pest, agricultural officials said they will probably begin releasing 40 million sterile flies Thursday.

Helicopters dumped 1,406 gallons of a malathion-and-corn-syrup mixture on a 35-square-mile area of the Westside in a five-hour overnight effort to eradicate the fruit fly.

Monitor Fly Traps

Los Angeles County Agriculture Commissioner E. Leon Spaugy said inspectors will monitor fly traps in the next few days. If no non-sterile flies are found, further spraying should not be necessary and the release of sterile flies will begin.

Despite repeated assurances from agricultural officials that the pesticide does not pose a health hazard, residents flooded a Medfly hot line, local police and fire departments and veterinary clinics with phone calls.

About 15 people called the county health department to complain of respiratory or skin problems said to be related to the spraying, officials said.

In Culver City, police reported being swamped with calls from people in the Fox Hills area who said they had been sprayed despite being just south of Slauson Avenue, the southern boundary of the targeted area.

Officials said they will investigate the report but said they had monitored the spraying very carefully.

“We measure those things. We know exactly where it comes down and where it doesn’t come down,” said Gera Curry, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture. Post-spray reaction among Westside residents--who had covered cars, playground equipment and swimming pools with plastic tarpaulins--was mixed.

“I think it’s fascinating that California agriculture is more important than the population,” said an exasperated Ellen Stang as she hosed down the sidewalk in front of her home in the swank community of Rancho Park early Friday.

Yellow Powdery Substance

Stang, who said some of her friends who have children had left town to avoid the spraying, said she found a yellow powdery substance on her front porch and her morning newspaper when she awoke Friday.

At the Crown Car Wash at Pico and Beverly Glen boulevards, manager Ruth Tumpowsky said a line of people waiting to get their cars washed had formed even before opening time.

Richard Huelsman, an architect who lives on Wilshire Boulevard, seemed resigned to the spraying, saying it was just something that Southern California residents have to put up with, “like traffic.”

The Beverly Hills Police Department received 300 calls overnight. Some people called Friday morning, hours after the spraying was finished, and asked if it was safe to go outside, according to Lt. Robert Curtis.

At the Beverly Hills Small Animal Clinic, receptionist Tracy Courteney said ,”Our clients are very concerned.”

County health officials had said before the spraying that exposure would not harm warm-blooded animals.

Smells Reported

Some people Friday reported smelling the malathion and even having a taste in their mouth.

State agricultural spokeswoman Curry said doses of the pesticide were so small that its smell would have dissipated quickly.

“I attribute some of this to an anxiety situation. They smell it because they think they should smell it,” she said. “A lot of this is stress-related, self-fulfilling prophesies.”

A total of 48 adult Medflies have been found since Sept. 26, mostly in the Palms area. A fruit quarantine for a 76-square-mile area is also in effect.