Orange County Gets First Dose of Medfly Spray

Hundreds of gallons of a sticky, semi-sweet mixture began raining down on North County streets Thursday night as state agricultural officials sought to wipe out the destructive Mediterranean fruit fly with the first aerial pesticide spraying in Orange County history.

Despite early concerns that recent Santa Ana winds might jeopardize the mission by scattering the pesticide, helicopter pilots left El Monte Municipal Airport as planned at 9:05. They then began to spray an estimated 550 gallons of a malathion mix over about 30,000 to 40,000 homes and businesses in a 10-square-mile area of Brea, La Habra and Fullerton.

Orange County Agricultural Commissioner James Harnett, reviewing the scene in El Monte as two specially equipped Bell 204 helicopters took off, said: “Perfect; it’s going just the way we planned it. . . .

“We hope (the Medflies) will be enticed by the bait, eat it, keel over and die.”

Most of those living in the spray zone appeared to heed the advice of agriculture officials and stayed inside their homes. But a few, such as Raul Luna of Fullerton, ventured outside to watch the helicopters cruising at about 500 feet overhead.

“It’s unbelievable,” Luna said as he sat on his front porch with his children. “It’s unreal when you see this stuff on TV, but now it’s our place.”

The Medfly’s rapid spread in the Los Angeles Basin in recent weeks has threatened a repeat of the devastation that racked the state’s $16-billion-a-year agriculture industry in 1981. The insect, originally from West Africa, burrows into more than 250 varieties of fruits and vegetables, rendering them unsalable.

So far, however, its emergence in Orange County has been limited to the find of a single pregnant fly in Brea two weeks ago. And agriculture officials hope that, if no more flies appear, the spraying Thursday will be the last for the area.

While many North County residents seemed concerned about the health effects of the pesticide mixture, it was the specific task of covering cars that dominated their last-minute preparations on Thursday.

State officials assert that the mixture--three parts protein fly bait and one part malathion pesticide--poses no significant health hazard to humans. But they did warn residents to cover their automobiles during spraying to prevent possible discoloring from the chemicals.

“All this for one fly,” complained Jim Gomez of La Habra, as he taped clear plastic sheets over his silver Toyota truck and a 25-foot trailer.

Meanwhile, in Brea, Gene and Rose Amaral were puzzling over what to do about the eight cars parked in their driveway and yard. With only two tarpaulins on hand, they went to a nearby hardware store to buy some more.

But like other last-minute shoppers, they discovered that the store was sold out of tarps, overrun by local residents who also needed something to cover cars and outdoor items such as patio furniture.

“They started lining up early (Thursday) morning,” said John Hutcherson, a salesman at Cannings’ hardware store.

Dennis Pack, of Seal Beach, saw the spraying as a chance to make a buck. By Thursday evening, he said, he had sold several hundred car covers at $5.99 a crack from four street-corner locations in the area.

But Pack wasn’t sticking around for the malathion shower. “When I hear the choppers come,” said Pack, “I leave.”

Those who weren’t able to find car covers on Thursday might not have much better luck today finding a place to get the pesticide mix washed off.

“Judging by the number of calls we’ve been getting, I suspect they’ll be lined up down the street and around the corner to boot,” said La Habra carwash owner Robin Deal.

With the spraying expected to be completed by early today, the waiting now begins: It will be four to five months--or three generational cycles of the yellow and black flies--before agriculture specialists know if the operation was successful.

“The proof of the spraying will be finding no more flies,” said Frank Parsons, chief deputy agricultural commissioner for Orange County. “If no more show up (within five months), we can assume they’ve been eradicated.”

County technicians will continue to routinely check the 1,500 Medfly traps set up in the North County region for any sign of the pest’s return. If any more fertile flies do emerge, agriculture officials say, the area will have to be sprayed again.

That is because a shortage of sterile Medflies--sometimes released by the millions to try to kill off a population by slowing reproduction--has eliminated that option.

Repeated sprayings in the Los Angeles area have spurred some protests from residents and elected officials, who question the need for continued applications of malathion and challenge the government’s assertion that the pesticide is incapable of hurting anything more than a fly.

Indeed, the spraying process has been almost routine for many residents elsewhere around the Southland:

Since August, state officials have had to conduct 10 different sprayings in East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley in a thus-far unsuccessful attempt to spread the worst outbreak of Medflies ever seen in Southern California.

But it was not until Nov. 17 that the bug surfaced in Orange County, with the discovery of a pregnant Medfly in a 15-foot-high guava tree in Brea. Agriculture officials believe that the transportation of home-grown fruit out of quarantined areas, along with strong Santa Ana winds, aided the infestation area’s rapid growth around the Southland.

As a result, residents in the 10-square-mile spray target area, immediately surrounding the spot where the Brea fly was found, became the first in Orange County to undergo the process, causing more than a few jitters in the area.

State officials blanketed the affected North County neighborhoods earlier this week with flyers asserting the safety of the pesticide and telling people what precautions to take, such as staying indoors and covering cars.

But the hundreds of calls that flooded the county’s “Medfly hot line” this week--there were more than 300 by 5 p.m. Thursday alone--were a clear sign that many were still on edge.

“This is a new experience for us--we’ve never been through it before, and there’s some concern about that,” Brea Mayor Gene A. Leyton, who lives in the spray area, said Thursday.

“We don’t like the idea of chemicals being dropped over our neighborhoods--who knows whether they’re going to find out in 20 years that this stuff is bad for us?” Leyton said. “But the alternative--the destruction of the state’s agriculture--isn’t very good either, so what can you do?”

Many callers from outside the spray area telephoned a county hot line to express concern over hearing the helicopters overhead. Operators assured them that the helicopters needed to fly beyond the spray zone to turn around but always stopped releasing chemicals at the borders. “They’re very accurate,” said operator Rick Kinsella.

One self-styled environmental activist group called the Green Party had planned a protest in Brea during Thursday’s spraying, but it was scrubbed when only two members of the group showed up.

Times staff writers Jim Carlton, Mary Lou Fulton, Matt Lait, Lisa Mascaro and Tom McQueeney contributed to this report.

THURSDAY’S MEDFLY SPRAYING ABOUT THE SPRAYING: No repeat spray application has been planned at this time. Officials will continue to monitor the 1,500 traps distributed over an 81-square-mile area that includes that spray zone plus surrounding area. If additional flies are found, a second spray would be possible. The Medfly hot line in the county Agricultural Commission office will be open from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. for residents with questions. The number is (714) 447-7118. The hot line will be shut down after Friday. Inquiries after that can be made to the agricultural commissioner’s office at (714) 447-7100. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered new tests of malathion, state officials assert that it is “one of the safest insecticides in use today.” State officials say that the doses used in aerial spraying pose no health threat to anyone. AFTER THE SPRAYING: All patio furniture, play equipment, tools and household items left outdoors during the spraying should be hosed down. Cars should be washed with soap and water. Source: State and Orange County agriculture officials