Agriculture Officials Find More Oriental Fruit Flies

Silver Lake, already the site of a Medfly infestation, is now under attack by another agricultural pest, the less-threatening Oriental fruit fly, county officials said Friday.

Since Oct. 5, seven Oriental fruit flies have been found within a square mile of the community northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Two of the flies, including a female with eggs, were trapped on the same residential property in the 3400 block of Descanso Drive where a Medfly was detected in August.

Crews from the state Department of Food and Agriculture have been dispatched to squirt “minute amounts” of an insecticide on fences, trees and utility poles. The insecticide, combined with a sex lure, attracts the flies and kills them, said Leon Spaugy, county agricultural commissioner.

Spaugy also said that four Oriental fruit flies were trapped Oct. 9 and 10 in Arcadia and Monrovia, prompting officials to order ground spraying of insecticide in those communities.

“This has been a very busy year for fruit fly infestations, particularly for the Oriental fruit fly. We have detected this pest 12 times this year,” Spaugy said.

County, state and federal agricultural officials plan to meet later this month to explore how to prevent more crop-destroying pests from entering California.