Cerritos Added to Quarantine Areas

A ban on the export of home-grown fruit and vegetables was placed on the Cerritos area Wednesday because of an infestation of Oriental fruit flies.

Wednesday’s ban means a total of 190 square miles in Los Angeles County are under quarantine for agricultural pests.

Additionally, three Oriental fruit flies were detected in Burbank, prompting officials to order ground spraying of insecticide on fence posts, trees and utility poles.

Oriental fruit flies are potentially as destructive as the more notorious Mediterranean fruit flies, which agricultural officials are battling over 70 square miles north of downtown Los Angeles. But Oriental fruit flies have become a more common occurrence in Southern California, and eradication efforts have not involved the controversial aerial spraying of malathion.

The latest quarantine was imposed on a 79-square-mile area straddling the Los Angeles-Orange County line. Under the quarantine, commercially grown fruit and vegetables must be treated and approved by the county agricultural commissioner before it can be removed from the area.