Guava Tree Makes Pest of Itself in Brea : Infestation: The tree in which a pregnant Medfly was found has been nothing but trouble for couple.

If Grace Morton had her way, the guava tree in the front yard of her house would have been gone a long time ago.

She did not like the 12-foot-tall tree before last summer, when county officials stuck a small trap among its branches. And she has disliked it even more since Friday, when those same officials found a pregnant Mediterranean fruit fly residing in the basket-like device.

“If I had known they were going to find it in my tree . . . I would have knocked the hell out” of the guava tree, she said Tuesday. “It stands out like a sore thumb.”

The discovery of the fruit fly has prompted county agricultural officials to decide to spray a three-city area next week with malathion--the first such sprayings ever in Orange County. The pesticide will rain down on a 10-square-mile area, with the Mortons’ guava tree, located near the intersection of Puente Street and West Walling Avenue, smack in the center.

Morton said the tree, which was planted by a previous owner perhaps 15 years ago, has caused a lot of trouble. Most annoying is when the green-skinned fruit drops to the ground, she said. She once paid a few neighbor kids 15 cents apiece to pick up the fruit.

What’s more, the tree also has wrapped itself around the eaves of the roof and has started to tower over the home’s shake shingles.

Commonly found in Florida and tropical America, guavas grow on shrubs and trees, which bear fruit after two or three years. The forest-green fruit on the Mortons’ tree is egg-size, with grainy flesh underneath the inedible skin.

The guava tree was not the only overgrown variety of vegetation that Morton, 63, and her husband, Zeke, 69, found in 1984 when they moved into their home. She said she had to clean up a mess of shrubs, weeds and towering trees left by the previous owners.

The Mortons’ cleanup effort--which meant planting new flower bushes and ferns--also included removing a mountain pine from a slope in their back yard, at a cost of about $125. Although it provided the Mortons with more than enough firewood, the price made her think twice about getting rid of the guava.

“If I had known the problems these would cause, I would have knocked (the guava) down first,” she said.

Morton said she had no idea how the trouble-causing fruit fly found its way to her tree.

She did not give the trap any further thought when agricultural officials set it there last summer. She does not know how her tree was chosen.

“They came by and they set the traps and they didn’t tell us anything about it,” Morton said.

When the pregnant fly was found, county officials sprayed the tree and a few berry bushes in the front yard. But Morton said she has heard nothing from them since.

The aerial pesticide spraying upsets Morton.

“It’s a terrible nuisance,” she said. “You don’t know what kind of chemicals they’re using. I’m not really for it.”

She said that she was uncertain what would be done with the tree, but she would like to see it gone by next year. She wants to plant a row of ferns in its place.

“They can take it and put it in a museum, I don’t care,” she said.