Spraying Urged in Riverside County : Medfly: Panel also calls for aerial malathion applications over Hancock Park and the city of Walnut. Officials say action is needed if quarantine is to end quickly.

A state panel of scientists recommended Monday that 19 square miles of Woodcrest in Riverside County be sprayed with malathion at least eight times to eradicate Mediterranean fruit flies infesting commercial orange groves.

The panel also proposed that aerial pesticide spraying begin over parts of Hancock Park in Los Angeles and the city of Walnut, citing new fly discoveries during the past week. A decision by the state Department of Food and Agriculture is expected this week.

If accepted, the territory of Southern California under treatment with aerial applications of malathion would be expanded to 430 square miles, in an infestation that is approaching its ninth month. While the state previously announced it would wind down spraying by May 9, the deadline will not apply to the Riverside County spraying.

The panel’s recommendations were decided during an emergency conference call prompted by the discovery of four Medflies last week. Some officials have become frustrated by the flurry of fly finds.

“Where is the end to all this?” asked James R. Carey, one of five entomologists on the Medfly Science Advisory Panel. “No one sees it.”

The panel recommended that areas around Hancock Park and Walnut be sprayed with malathion twice and then treated with the release of millions of sterile Medflies, which are used to disrupt the breeding cycle of wild flies.

Jim Wallace, Riverside County agricultural commissioner, said multiple malathion sprayings were recommended for Woodcrest because of the shortage of sterile flies and the need to take more aggressive action to protect the area’s commercial citrus crops.

State agriculture officials declared a 71-square-mile quarantine zone around Woodcrest on Friday that covers about 95 growers.

Wallace said multiple aerial sprayings will eradicate the Medfly faster and allow the state to lift the quarantine sooner.

Panel member Roy Cunningham said the area around Woodcrest probably would be sprayed eight to 12 times, starting as early as next week.

He said if no more flies are found there, spraying probably would continue for at least 3 1/2 months. While Woodcrest is a farming community, the recommendation to spray met with mixed responses from residents and even some growers.

Wallace said he is concerned that so many residential neighborhoods would be sprayed along with the fruit orchards. Also, he said, most growers there use a style of farming that shuns pesticides in favor of the release of beneficial insects to prey upon harmful pests. He said malathion spraying will hurt the delicate ecological balance that the growers have developed during the past two decades.

“It doesn’t make me happy, but this is a bad situation,” he said.

Citrus grower Larry Topham agreed that few farmers relish the prospect of malathion spraying after working for decades to reduce the amount of pesticides on their fruit. But he saw no alternative.

“I would hate to throw away 20 years of work,” he said, “but if push comes to shove, you’re going to spray.”

Many farmers are more worried about whether the quarantine will be lifted before the mid-summer harvest of grapefruit and Valencia oranges.

The growers sell much of their fruit to Japan, a country that state officials say will not accept fruit from a quarantine area.

Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a Japanese consul in Los Angeles in charge of agricultural issues, said he is aware of the quarantine, but said no decision has been made on whether fruit from the Woodcrest quarantine will be accepted.

“We are watching,” he said. “Just now, I don’t have an answer.”

Gov. George Deukmejian, who was in Los Angeles on Monday, refused to answer questions about the malathion spray program during a press conference he called to voice his support for an unrelated ballot initiative.

Deukmejian also said he would not comment on whether he believed the malathion spray program would end in previously infested sectors by May 9.

“It’s a fair question to ask, but not the right time,” Deukmejian said. He referred Medfly questions to the state Department of Food and Agriculture and said he would discuss the issue at a “general subjects” press conference on Thursday.

MEDFLY SPRAYING MAP: B2