Two-County Quarantine Is Aimed at Fruit Fly

An unofficial quarantine of fruits and vegetables has been instituted in a 79-square-mile area of Orange and Los Angeles counties to eradicate the Oriental fruit fly.

Agriculture officials have put quarantine rules into effect pending their formal approval in Sacramento, a move anticipated early next week, said Bill Callison, chief of the state Department of Food and Agriculture’s pest exclusion branch.

Startled by the discovery of seven male Oriental fruit flies in Cerritos this week, agriculture inspectors are asking people not to take raw, home-grown fruits and vegetables outside the quarantine area.

Vendors who sell fruit and vegetables at outdoor stands are being asked to use plastic or netting to keep the produce shielded from fruit flies, said Bob Atkins, deputy agricultural commissioner in charge of pest prevention for Los Angeles County. Produce that has not been shielded should not be taken outside the quarantine area, he said.

John Ellis, a deputy agricultural commissioner for Orange County, said nurseries and other commercial growers inside the quarantine area may not sell plants with fruit on them. The fruit must be destroyed and any soil must be treated before sale, Ellis said.

In Los Angeles County, the quarantine area includes all of Hawaiian Gardens, Cerritos and Artesia and portions of Long Beach, Lakewood, Bellflower, Norwalk, La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs, Atkins said.

The quarantine area also covers 24 square miles of Orange County, including all of Buena Park and La Palma, most of Cypress and parts of Anaheim, Stanton, Fullerton and Los Alamitos, Atkins said.

Workers have been using a bait-and-pesticide mix to treat the area where the seven male Oriental fruit flies were found, Atkins said. They have been applying the mixture on trees and telephone poles along the streets in a 15-square-mile area, he said.

Ellis said the quarantine was expected to last about 90 days.

Oriental fruit flies can wreak havoc on produce. They are known to infest 230 types of fruits and vegetables.