10-Month War on Medfly on Westside Declared Won

It took more than 10 months of spraying, a billion-plus sterile fruit flies and $2 million, but authorities announced Monday that they have finally defeated the Medfly invasion of West Los Angeles.

“We have not detected any additional fruit flies,” said Leon Spaugy, the agricultural commissioner for Los Angeles County.

Almost a year after the discovery of 48 Mediterranean fruit flies prompted federal, state and local officials to launch an eradication campaign, the quarantine was lifted on a 76-square-mile area that includes Hollywood, West Los Angeles, Culver City and Beverly Hills.

Starting last October, state officials released about 1.2 billion sterile flies to breed with fertile flies--producing no offspring. Officials waited for 10 months (a period which encompasses three fly life cycles) before concluding that the flies were eradicated. During that period, the pesticide malathion was also sprayed from the sky.

The “key to killing them off,” Spaugy said, was an “early knockdown” before the flies--which prey on more than 250 kinds of produce--could establish themselves on the Westside.

“We had the potential for a serious widespread infestation,” Spaugy said.

To limit the spread of the fly, officials banned the transport of produce. Street vendors were asked to agree in writing to the restrictions, but Spaugy said they were less than diligent troops in the war on the Medfly.

At least half of the 239 fruit vendors who congregate on city streets and near highway on-ramps violated the quarantine, Spaugy said. Nearly 13,000 pounds of citrus fruit and other varieties were confiscated from the vendors. Another 10,000 pounds were seized from the region’s 500 grocery stores and farmers markets, which are larger and serve many more customers.

Another Pest

Despite the success of the Medfly eradication, the ash whitefly, a more robust insect, has infested large parts of Southern California, officials said.

Spaugy says the ash whitefly “doesn’t have the potential for being as much as a problem” because it attacks a smaller array of plants. Nevertheless, the whitefly will be much harder to eradicate because it has already infected large areas. Also, Spaugy said, pesticides are ineffective against the whitefly, which infests quickly.

“It’s a very mobile insect,” Spaugy said. “It’s a hitchhiker.”