Checkmate : Sterile Medflies Freed in Bid to Halt Infestation

Love was in the air Monday as authorities released the first of 300 million sterile Mediterranean fruit flies near Dodger Stadium, hoping that the sterile flies will quickly consummate courtships with fertile counterparts.

The matchmaking is intended to bring to an end a month-old infestation of the crop-destroying pest near downtown. Earlier this month, the sector was sprayed with a pesticide in a first attack against Medflies.

During the next two months, irradiated Medflies flown by jet from Hawaii will be released in the 43-square-mile area between Los Feliz Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway. Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner Leon Spaugy said fertile Medflies can’t tell if their mates are infertile.

Well-Fed and Amorous

“The idea,” he said, “is for them to breed themselves out of existence.”

Said to be well-fed and amorous, the sterile Hawaiians have blue eyes, orange and black striped wings and a sex-lure scent that fertile flies can detect 100 feet away.

“They’re pretty attractive,” said Reg Rosander, a pest control expert with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who is helping coordinate the $1-million eradication effort.

Added Gary Agosta, a state entomologist assisting with the fly fight: “We release them when they reach sexual maturity. The only thing they have on their mind is sex.”

Spaugy said officials anticipate that the mating program will control any fertile Medflies that may have escaped the aerial spraying of malathion on Aug. 10. The spraying was ordered after 40 adult Medflies and five Medfly larval sites were discovered west of Dodger Stadium. Since then, no new fertile Medflies have been found.

Monday’s release was the sixth time since 1974 that California agricultural officials have looked to insect love to help control a fly infestation. They speculate that the latest outbreak occurred when someone illegally brought fruit containing Medfly larvae into Los Angeles from Hawaii, Mexico or Central or South America.

Spaugy said authorities will release up to 8 million sterile flies each weekday from trucks traveling through an 18-square-mile area of Silver Lake, Echo Park and Elysian Park. Flies dumped out the window of a low-flying twin-engine airplane will extend that area by another 25 square miles. On Monday, a small Medfly cloud followed agricultural worker Ruby Faus down Scott Avenue as she emptied small buckets of the bugs from the back of a pickup truck to start the release program.

“They don’t bite and, being sterile, they’re clean,” said Faus, a Woodland Hills resident who said her regular job is selling real estate. “But I may get some insect repellent for my hands.”

In nearby Elysian Park, would-be picnickers Marie Perez and Maggie Graciano bundled up the four children they had in tow and buzzed off after learning that millions of flies were en route.

Graciano wasn’t concerned about the flies being attracted to each other.

“I’m worried about flies being attracted to our food,” she said.