Orange County Rejects Added Medfly Traps for Fear of Spraying

Afraid to do anything that could trigger new rounds of aerial malathion spraying, Orange County supervisors ignored the advice of scientists Tuesday and rejected a state plan to double the number of Medfly trapping locations in parts of the county.

State officials had argued that they could more quickly detect Mediterranean fruit fly infestations by rotating existing traps more often and by doubling the number of trap locations.

But Supervisors Roger R. Stanton and Harriett M. Wieder, whose northern county districts were most heavily hit by malathion spraying last winter and spring, complained that the proposal would have made a test case of Orange County, and might have subjected residents to more rounds of spraying.

“I don’t see a logic to increasing the probability . . . of finding a new fly out there,” said Stanton, who led the move to reject the proposal. “I really have found no cogent reason at all to support this program.”

State Medfly experts accused the supervisors of playing politics with the problem, and said the action could actually worsen the chances of heading off a major infestation.

“It sounds to me like a bury-your-head-in-the-sand approach,” said James Carey, an associate professor of entomology at UC Davis and a member of the state’s Medfly advisory panel. “The whole point of trapping is to find the fly population, so that you can surgically remove them. . . . You can use a rifle instead of a shotgun.”

Because of the nature of the proposal, opposition by Stanton and Wieder was enough to scuttle the plan.

As a result of the board action, the number of trapping locations in Orange County will be reduced as planned at the end of this month. There are currently about 6,000 traps in the county.

Gera Curry, information officer for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said he was stunned by Tuesday’s action and he accused Wieder and Stanton of putting politics ahead of science in the Medfly battle.

“We think that it’s unfortunate that some members of the board politicized this issue,” Curry said. “I can’t argue with the premise that if you don’t look, you don’t find, but early detection is what can prevent a wider spray area. It’s an early warning system.”