Copters Attack Medflies in L.A.

Agricultural officials launched an airborne assault on the Mediterranean fruit fly late Thursday night as two helicopters began spraying the pesticide malathion on a 14-square-mile area northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

County inspectors announced earlier that they had found 34 additional Medflies and 28 pieces of fruit riddled with the insect’s larvae in an Elysian Park neighborhood that officials said is the epicenter of an infestation by the crop-destroying pest.

Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner Leon Spaugy said inspectors late Wednesday found the latest Medflies and larvae in traps in the 1600 block of Sargent Place, less than a mile west of Dodger Stadium.

“We’ve identified the area as the epicenter of the infestation,” Spaugy said. “I hope it’s the only epicenter we find.”

County entomologists on Thursday confirmed that at least one of the female Medflies trapped in a peach tree on Sargent Place was preparing to lay eggs, Spaugy said.

“That shows clearly that we have a breeding population,” he said.

Officials on Wednesday announced the first discovery of Medfly larvae, the white maggots that later grow into adult flies, in a single peach taken from a tree also in the 1600 block of Sargent Place.

County inspectors for the last two weeks have been checking daily the more than 1,600 fly traps put in the area after the discovery of the first Medfly in an Echo Park neighborhood July 20. The traps used by the county release scents that, to the male Medfly, “smell like a single’s bar,” inspector Raymond Smith said.

County and state officials earlier this week persuaded Gov. George Deukmejian to declare a state of emergency after inspectors found a third adult Medfly in a lemon tree Sunday.

The governor’s declaration cleared the way for the aerial spraying of malathion over the communities of Elysian Park, Echo Park and Silver Lake, where an estimated 85,000 to 100,000 people live. The spray area is roughly bounded by 3rd Street on the south, Los Feliz Boulevard and the Golden State Freeway on the north, Western Avenue on the west and the Harbor and Pasadena freeways and San Fernando Road on the east.

County health officials said that the spray, which is a mixture of malathion in a corn syrup base, is in a dosage that is not harmful to humans or animals. However, they urged residents to stay indoors during the spraying. The biggest potential damage is to the paint on uncovered automobiles.

Homeless advocate Ted Hayes said that the governor’s office turned down his request Thursday to delay the aerial spraying until state and county agencies could provide overnight shelter for thousands of area homeless.

“They are warning residents to stay inside, but homeless people have no place to go inside,” Hayes said. “They’re going to be outside, laying on their backs asleep.”

Aerial spraying is the first step in what officials estimate will be a $1-million fight to eliminate the Medfly from the area. Officials on Aug. 21 plan to begin releasing 40 million sterile Medflies a week over a 50-square-mile area.