Medfly Effort Put in Doubt, Officials Say : Eradication: The discovery of more of the pests raises the possibility of widespread aerial insecticide spraying.

Mediterranean fruit flies have been found in five additional Los Angeles County neighborhoods, officials reported Wednesday, prompting serious doubts about current eradication efforts and raising the prospect among top scientists of widespread aerial pesticide spraying in the San Gabriel Valley and East Los Angeles.

The leading member of the state’s scientific advisory panel and Los Angeles Agricultural Commissioner Leon Spaugy--a staunch defender of the county’s eradication efforts--called for a reevaluation of the attack strategies being used against the fruit-destroying Medfly.

“This certainly is a severe blow to our confidence in the system,” said Roy Cunningham, the leading entomologist on the scientific panel that advises county and state officials on the Medfly. “This is a grievous sign that we have serious problems we did not realize.”

As a result of the trapping of pregnant flies Monday in South Gate, Monrovia and Eagle Rock, at least one aerial spraying of malathion will be required the first week in December, Spaugy said.

Two more male flies were found Tuesday in Pasadena and Elysian Park, but there are no immediate plans to spray those areas because male flies pose less of a threat than mated females, Spaugy said. However, he labeled the Elysian Park find “disturbing” because it is located in an area where officials were preparing to declare successful eradication of an infestation that began in August.

The latest discoveries widen the area of infestation to a region stretching from the East San Fernando Valley through the San Gabriel Valley to the Orange County community of Brea.

Officials will map out boundaries for new spray zones Monday, and there are indications that the new sector will be much larger than the previous eight spray zones.

Since August, only portions of the region, ranging from 12 to 22 square miles, have been subjected to nighttime spraying of the pesticide malathion. State regulations call for spray zone boundaries to extend 4 1/2 miles in each direction from the sites where flies are found.

But Cunningham said Wednesday that it is time to consider abandoning this protocol because “obviously something is wrong.”

“We are now coming closer to the time where we have to consider area-wide spraying,” Cunningham said, suggesting that boundaries be extended beyond 4 1/2 miles for wider “margins of safety.”

“Maybe in hindsight it might have been wiser to overshoot,” said Cunningham, who is regarded as the nation’s leading Medfly expert and one of the authors of the existing state regulations. If adopted by the five-member advisory panel as well as top agricultural officials, his recommendations will mark an aggressive change in the tactics used to fight the Medfly.

Spaugy, who repeatedly has insisted that the infestations are under control, said he still believes that the outbreaks do not constitute a countywide infestation. However, Spaugy said he is “willing to listen to any reasonable recommendation” to stop the spread of the pest, which destroys more than 250 varieties of produce.

At a three-day meeting beginning Dec. 4, top state and county officials and the scientific panel will discuss exactly how to change strategies.

“This has blown wide open now,” said James Carey, a UC Davis entomologist and scientific panel member who believes that the entire Los Angeles Basin is facing a full-blown infestation.

Resources are now stretched to their limits, officials said.

An acute shortage of sterile Medflies, which are released to breed out of existence wild flies not killed by malathion, has increased reliance on pesticide applications to fight the growing number of infestations.

Spraying around the new Eagle Rock, Monrovia and South Gate Medfly sites cannot take place until the week of Dec. 5, state agricultural officials said, because equipment and workers are already committed to three previously scheduled pesticide applications.

Parts of the San Gabriel Valley will receive their second dose of the pesticide next Tuesday and Wednesday nights. On Thursday, the Orange County community of Brea will be sprayed.

“Notifying residents is becoming a big problem,” said Veda Federighi, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture. “We have to print up more flyers and give people at least 24 hours notice.”

About 200 California Conservation Corps workers do not have the time to distribute more flyers, she said.

The announcement of the new infestations comes one day after about 20 grower representatives met with Food and Agriculture Director Henry Voss.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Voss said the 12 Southern California infestations are “not out of control.” He said he also believes that growers are concerned but approve of the eradication efforts to date.

Paul Engler, executive director of the California Citrus Quality Council and former Los Angeles County agricultural commissioner, attended the meeting with Voss and said that he and others were “satisfied” with the state’s efforts.

Since August, 178 Medflies have been trapped in Los Angeles County, and 132 miles of largely residential neighborhoods have been sprayed with malathion.