Public Gets Invitation to Join State Campaign to Eradicate Fruit Flies : Pests: Lay people can submit research proposals in an effort to find alternatives to malathion spraying.

For the first time, the California Department of Food and Agriculture is extending an open invitation to the public for research proposals on how to fight the Mediterranean and Mexican fruit flies without using malathion, it was announced Thursday.

Researchers and laymen will be able to submit proposals to the department and compete for a share of $750,000 in state money in an effort to find eradication alternatives to malathion spraying and develop better traps and lures for the flies, said Gera Curry, an agriculture department spokeswoman.

Though the department in the past has offered money to established scientists and universities for research into the fruit flies’ extermination, Curry said the latest offer marks the first time such funding has been offered to the public.

“Anybody who has anything worth contributing is invited to contribute,” said Curry. “This is open to almost any possibility.”

By inviting proposals, the department leaves itself open to ideas ranging from the realistic to the inane. Since the beginning of the malathion spraying campaign, a steady flow of off-the-wall ideas has been submitted to the department. Ideas include focusing psychic energy on the flies and playing the harmonica, which one would-be eradicator claims would imitate the mating call of the Medfly.

Curry said that it is not inconceivable that a proposal from an uncredentialed layman might be selected. But she said that eccentric proposals would probably not pass muster with the experts who decide on funding.

“There are two different committees these things must go through,” she said, “so I don’t think the wacky ideas will survive.”

The research funds were appropriated by the state Legislature and Gov. George Deukmejian in response to Assembly Bill 1166, a measure introduced by Assemblywoman Bev Hansen (R-Santa Rosa) that placed a high priority on research to develop effective detection devices and pesticide alternatives.

Though Curry said that toxicological and medical experts have deemed the amount of malathion sprayed in the state’s $40-million eradication campaign to be safe, officials would “like to alleviate this public anxiety no matter how unfounded it is, and if the scientific community can come up with a solution that doesn’t involve aerial spraying, we are all for it.”

The spraying of malathion has sparked concern among some residents and government officials who fear the health effects of repeated exposure to the pesticide.

Researchers applauded the department’s offer, calling the idea a healthy step toward reassuring the public that the department is open to new ideas.

“I think it would be positive if from nothing more than from the standpoint that they’re opening up to other possibilities,” said Steven A. Ross, president of the World Research Foundation, which has collected data from around the world on the effects of malathion.

James R. Carey, an entomologist and associate professor at UC Davis, said he doubted many original ideas would surface as a result of the department’s offer. But he said “it lets the public know they’re trying to do something” about the flies--and without malathion.

Research proposals are to be submitted between Nov. 13 and Dec. 31. Afterward, Curry said, committees of public health and pest eradication experts will select three or four researchers who will split the $750,000.

The malathion spraying campaign covered a 536-square-mile area at its peak and ended July 23. Only two Medflies have been discovered since then, according to Aurelio Posadas, Northern California area manager for the Agriculture Department. However, parts of the quarantine area remain in effect.