Fruit Quarantine Ordered in Part of Orange County

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 formal approval from 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 in the last week, agriculture inspectors are asking people not to take raw home-grown fruits and vegetables outside the quarantine area.

Friday afternoon, agricultural workers trapped a second male Oriental fruit fly in Carson, sparking a new eradication effort in the surrounding 9-square-mile area. The second fruit fly was found in a residential area of Carson, one-half mile southeast of the site where the first one was found Aug. 31, said Leon Spaughy, Los Angeles County’s agricultural commissioner. Eradication efforts were also under way in West Covina, Burbank, Cerritos, Hawthorne and Lawndale to rid those areas of Oriental fruit flies discovered earlier.

Shielding Requested

In 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 in that way 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 host fruit must be destroyed and any soil must be treated before sale, Ellis said.

The quarantine area 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.

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

Treating Area

Agricultural workers have been using a bait-and-pesticide mix to treat the area where the seven male Oriental fruit flies were found, Atkins said. The workers have been spreading the thick 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, which covers three generations of the fly.

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

Agricultural officials said one sign of infestation is the discovery of maggots inside a fruit or vegetable that appears unharmed on the outside. Ellis urged people who spot the maggots to call the office of the County Agricultural Commissioner at (714) 447-7100.