County Orders Double Dose of Medfly Spray

Faced with yet another discovery of fertile Mediterranean fruit flies, Los Angeles County officials abandoned Monday their policy of attacking infestations with a single application of pesticides and instead ordered helicopters to spray malathion twice over largely residential sections of East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.

Three more of the crop-destroying pests were reported Monday to have been trapped in Alhambra and South Pasadena. The discovery brought to six the number of pockets of infestations in the county that have been identified since August, and it appeared to shake the confidence of some experts who had maintained that the pest was under control.

“Right now, everybody is sitting on the edge of their seats,” said James Carey, a UC Davis entomologist and member of a scientific panel advising county and state officials involved in the eradication effort. “We cannot say with confidence that this infestation is contained.”

Carey was one of two members of the five-person panel who earlier had expressed concern that the infestation was more serious than their colleagues and other governmental officials believed, and who had called for more spraying.

Until now, each of the Medfly infestations has been fought with one night of aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion, followed by the release of millions of sterile Medflies that breed the insects out of existence.

Political and agricultural experts familiar with the state’s tortuous battle against the Medfly in 1981 have said that the political dynamics of the current situation could change if additional spraying is needed over each infested neighborhood. Environmental organizations, which previously had been silent about the spraying, on Monday expressed varying degrees of skepticism about the wisdom of the pesticide application over populated neighborhoods.

But county officials who made the decision to spray twice said their hand was forced: The supply of sterile Medflies, produced at a California Food and Agriculture laboratory in Hawaii, has been exhausted by the unprecedented number of infestations in the county, county officials said.

They said more sterile flies cannot be obtained from producers in Guatemala and Mexico fast enough to fight the latest outbreaks and the only alternative left is more pesticide spraying.

“We are at our limit on the steriles,” said Bob Atkins, the county’s deputy agricultural commissioner. “Whether people like it or not, we’re stuck within the limitations of the system. It’s not our first choice.”

After a two-hour conference call, the agriculture officials ordered aerial spraying for Thursday night and Nov. 29 over the newest 22-square-mile infestation encompassing South Pasadena. In addition, a second dose of malathion will be sprayed from helicopters Nov. 28 over a 22-square-mile section of the San Gabriel Valley sprayed last Thursday night, including El Monte, Rosemead and San Marino. Four other previously sprayed neighborhoods for now will not be sprayed again.

Zone Expands

The new spray zone brings to 111 the number of square miles that will have been treated in the county since August. To date, 153 Medflies have been discovered in the county.

The Medfly lays it eggs on more than 250 varieties of fruits and vegetables, making produce unfit for sale. Its spread could have a devastating effect on California’s $16-billion agriculture industry. In Los Angeles County alone, $1.75 billion dollars of produce shipped through the area to foreign countries could be quarantined if the infestation spreads countywide.

In doubling the applications, agriculture officials and three other members of the scientific panel were heeding advice offered last week by two UC Davis professors who had also called for increased trapping to more accurately determine the extent of the region’s infestation.

“We need an improved blanket of detection,” said Richard Rice, a UC David entomologist. “We are finding a lot of flies in areas we should have found three months ago.”

The scientists will discuss plans for a more aggressive trapping plan Wednesday.

“We are chasing these flies,” said Carey, who advocates intense trapping in the Los Angeles Basin to get ahead of the Medfly population.

State and federal health officials maintain that malathion is one of the safest pesticides available and poses no health hazards because extremely low amounts are used in aerial spraying. In 1981, a 36-square-mile Medfly-infested section of the San Gabriel Valley was sprayed 33 separate times because of “a lack of confidence” in the sterile flies, Atkins said.

However, some environmental groups Monday criticized the pesticide’s use, saying too little is known about the chemical to declare it harmless.

“It’s not in the category of the exceedingly dangerous chemicals, and it doesn’t right now even appear to be in the category of pesticides that are moderately hazardous,” said Lawrie Mott, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “Now that doesn’t mean that it is a safe chemical.

“We need additional information about its environmental and health effect. Furthermore, that doesn’t mean that it is safe to spray it all over the L.A. Basin.

“If they are going to spray a pesticide,” Mott added, “they picked one of the chemicals that probably is the least hazardous.”

Mott said she assumed this year’s spraying has spawned little citizen protest because communities are being properly notified about the times of spraying. Other environmental activists said they were surprised at the lack of strong opposition.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Edelman, whose district includes the spray zone, said he plans to ask agriculture officials at a board meeting today “about the failure to have enough sterile Medflies” and about the notice to residents.

Edelman said he is “not opposing the spraying at this point, but I have concerns.”

“I’m concerned about making sure that people get advance notice,” he said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, however, expressed anger over the double spraying in his district.

“Obviously something has to be done about the Medfly, but I seriously question why yet again the Eastside is bearing such a heavy burden,” Alatorre said. “We have a disproportionate percentage of the city’s jails, freeways and toxic industry, and now it’s the Eastside where they ran out of sterile Medflies. I want a full accounting from the state on why they weren’t prepared when they should have known better.”

Warning Flyers

Meanwhile, agricultural officials have stepped up their campaign to persuade the public to honor quarantine boundaries. Later this week, grocery stores will be placing in grocery sacks state-produced flyers that carry Medfly warnings.

County Agricultural Commissioner Leon Spaugy said he and members of the state’s science advisory panel were in agreement about the need for two nights of aerial spraying.

“At this time, there is no plan for a third application,” Spaugy said. “That gives us a little window in case all hell breaks loose.

“Any time, you have to go in with a second application, there is always the possibility of encountering additional problems,” Spaugy said. “That’s why we try each time just to go with the single application.

“But I’m optimistic that . . . people will be understanding and recognize that it’s important we control this pest here rather than have it infest other areas. Then we’ll be looking at a much larger area for application,” he said.

Times environmental writer Maura Dolan contributed to this report.

DATES OF SPRAYING

1. Aug. 10 15-square-mile area encompassing Echo Park, Elysian Park and Silver Lake

2. Oct. 3 24-square-mile area encompassing Baldwin Park, La Puente and West Covina

3. Oct. 4 9-square-mile area around Whittier

4. Nov. 6 17-square-mile area in San Fernando, Sylmar and parts of Granada Hills, Mission Hills and Pacoima

5. Nov. 9 23 square miles encompassing Rosemead, South El Monte, El Monte and parts of Monterey Park, San Marino, Arcadia and Temple City

6. Nov. 16 and Nov. 29 22-square-mile area encompassing South Pasadena and parts of San Marino, Monterey Hills, El Sereno and Alhambra.

5. Nov. 28 Respraying of 23 square miles encompassing Rosemead, South El Monte, El Monte and parts of Monterey Park, San Marino, Arcadia and Temple City