FLY WATCH : War Games

Rosemead was sprayed with malathion 10, count them, 10 times between November, 1989, and May of this year in order to eradicate Medflies.

But (need we really say it?) they’re back: Two more Medflies were found there in the last two weeks, and more spraying is scheduled to resume today.

There are all sorts of excuses. Some officials believe infested fruit could have been brought back into the area. Others say that the eradication program was simply inexpertly executed.

OK. It’s nice to give people the benefit of the doubt, but obviously eradication is not occurring. So maybe state Medfly officials have an odd definition of “eradication”?

Isn’t the seemingly permanent presence of the pesky fly evidence to support entomologist James Carey’s assertion that the Medfly has only been suppressed, never eradicated, over the last 15 years?

If suppression is all we really gain from pesticide spraying, shouldn’t the state say that?

The danger is that maybe the enemy isn’t so much the Medfly as ourselves: State policy is premised on an endgame of wipeout, unconditional surrender, eradication. But is this real? Must we really spray Rosemead 10 times in order to save it?

The state should review the facts of the Medfly--especially its consistent reappearance--and reassess just what kind of war this is.

It’s hard to win a war if you don’t know precisely what kind of struggle you are in.