Florida Declares Victory in Its War With Medfly : Infestation: Officials say the pest has been eradicated in just 3 1/2 months. They take a potshot at California’s 13-month battle.

Florida agriculture officials proclaimed victory Friday in a 3 1/2-month battle to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly, and chided California for a weak and tardy response to an infestation of the crop-destroying pest.

The Florida infestation, which began in late April with the discovery of a single Medfly near Miami International Airport, covered 21 square miles around the suburban communities of Hialeah, Miami Springs and Virginia Gardens.

Richard Gaskalla, the chief commander of the Florida eradication effort, said quick action by the state with an intensive pesticide-spraying campaign stopped the infestation from reaching the size of Southern California’s outbreak, which ensnared 536 square miles in the spray zone at one point.

“California hasn’t taken as aggressive action as what we took,” Gaskalla said. “The Medfly is a very unforgiving pest. You don’t get a second chance.”

Gaskalla said he believed California’s eradication program--now entering its 13th month--was soft on the pest when it first appeared near Elysian Park in July, 1989. The infestation area was sprayed once; then sterile Medflies were released in an effort to breed the pest out of existence.

In Florida, officials launched their malathion-bearing helicopters within 10 days of trapping their first Medfly and proceeded to spray the infested territory eight times.

“We like to knock down the Medfly and keep them down,” Gaskalla said.

When California’s infestation grew to several hundred square miles in late 1989, officials were forced to repeatedly spray neighborhoods with malathion on a schedule of once every three weeks. In Florida, the spraying took place every week for two months, Gaskalla said.

In the end, Florida’s eradication campaign cost about $1.7 million. The price tag on California’s continuing battle is now approaching $40 million and will certainly grow larger.

E. Leon Spaugy, Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner, said that despite the disparate records of the two eradication campaigns, he believes that California’s has been just as well run as Florida’s.

Spaugy called the Florida criticisms “Monday morning quarterbacking” that proved nothing about the efficiency of California’s program.

“Our protocol has been successful in the past,” Spaugy said. “I think it’s callous of Florida to suggest that we use more sprays when one will work.”

Florida agriculture officials have long complained about California’s eradication program, and in May petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to slap an agricultural quarantine on the entire state.

Florida officials said California had deployed too few Medfly traps and took “shortcuts” in its eradication campaign, such as spraying outbreaks only once or twice.

Doyle Conner, Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, argued that Medflies were “widely distributed” in California and presented “a very real and serious threat of being moved to Florida and other Southern states by way of infested host fruits and vegetables.”

The petition was turned down, but that did not change the views of Florida officials.

“I’m just not sure the action California took was as complete as it could have been,” Gaskalla said.

Gaskalla conceded that the California battle against the Medfly has been more difficult because of the virulent public opposition to malathion spraying.

In Florida, where malathion spraying is done on a routine basis to control mosquitoes, barely a peep of opposition was heard, he said. “We’ve been very lucky to have an understanding and cooperative public,” Gaskalla said.

But he said California also might have avoided the outcry over aerial spraying if it had mounted a stronger attack against the pest in the beginning and cleaned up the outbreak sooner.

“We used less than 1,000 gallons of malathion while California has used close to 50,000,” he said. “Who used less pesticide?”