State Is Winning Medfly War, Agriculture Chief Says
The state’s top agriculture official, responding to concerns by some scientists that efforts to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly infestation from Southern California could fail, predicted Tuesday that the war against the pest will be won, and that it should be wrapped up by June.
“Everything is working,” said Henry J. Voss, director of the state Department of Food and Agriculture. “We will probably find more flies, but I am confident we have the infestation under control and will complete eradication by the middle of the year.”
Voss’ rosy prognosis followed by one week a report in The Times that several scientists are now concerned that the attempt to eradicate the crop-damaging pest with aerial applications of the pesticide malathion might not be workable. Some scientists pointed to a pattern of new infestations in the region in the last decade and suggested that the state begin contemplating how to coexist with the Medfly.
Voss, appearing Tuesday at a hearing of the state Senate’s Agriculture and Water Resource Committee, said that since the start of repeated aerial malathion spraying in December, significantly fewer flies have been trapped in the region.
He said completion of a facility for breeding sterile Medflies in Hawaii also will help, providing as many as 500 million sterile flies a week by midyear. The so-called “steriles” are used to breed fertile Medflies out of existence.
“I think we’re a long way from an infestation that we can’t take care of,” Voss said. “It’s under control.”
Voss’ prediction of victory came just as his department announced that a 36-square-mile chunk of Orange County, covering Garden Grove and Westminster, will be sprayed with malathion Jan. 25 as a result of the discovery of a single fly in Garden Grove last week.
Committee Chairman Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) said the disheartening discovery of new flies has left him skeptical that the Medfly war is going as well as Voss believes.
“Something appears to be out of kilter,” Ayala said to Voss and his aides. “Why are we not getting better results? I do believe they’re doing the right thing now. But I don’t believe it is fully under control. If it was, why would we be finding all these flies now?”
Voss conceded that the department made a serious error last July at the start of the infestation by underestimating its size.
Ayala said that, while he believes the aerial pesticide spraying is safe, politically there is no way it can go on with no end.
“At what stage do you declare it is out of control?” Ayala asked. “With all due respect, we cannot continue spraying malathion . . . forever.”
Ayala’s statements echoed the concern of several scientists who said last week that they believe the Medfly may now be permanently settled in the state.
“Once you have an established population--and I would say the evidence in L.A. is that it is pretty well established--it (eradication) is very unlikely,” one of the scientists, Daniel Simberloff, a professor of biological science at Florida State University, said.
Ayala said he is willing to give Voss the benefit of the doubt for now.
“By June or July, if they don’t have the infestation under control, they’re going to have to admit that spraying hasn’t done the job,” he said. “If we’re going to continue spraying and spraying and spraying past June, they’d better look for a better answer.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted 5 to 1 Tuesday to ask county and state officials to stop malathion spraying until effects of exposure on children and youths can be studied.
The halt was proposed by board President Jackie Goldberg, who said her constituents are “in absolute panic” over the spraying. Board member Roberta Weintraub voted no, saying she needed more information before she would oppose a program that could ruin California’s agriculture.
