Fruit Flies Enter State in Mail, Study Finds : Investigation: Authorities conducting the survey in Hawaii found the foreign insects in packages destined for California.

Announcing the results of a two-year study conducted in Hawaii, state, federal and county agricultural officials said Friday that foreign fruit flies are coming to the mainland and into California in packages sent through the mail.

Because officials have long suspected that mailed packages were a source of the crop-destroying bugs, Dee Sudduth, a biologist with the state Department of Agriculture, said: “What (the study) found was not surprising, but quite impressive. It is a major pathway.”

Using trained dogs, authorities identified and inspected 850 first-class parcels containing plant material and found that 63 were infested with various fruit flies: the Oriental fruit fly, the Mediterranean fruit fly commonly known as the Medfly, the melon fly and the Malaysian fruit fly.

Sixty percent of the intercepted packages were destined for California, with the majority heading for areas in Southern California where fruit flies have been detected and eradication programs undertaken, Sudduth said.

The dreaded insects, which began appearing in the county 17 years ago, have the potential to devastate the state’s agricultural economy, but so far have not penetrated key agricultural areas, said Don Henry, chief of the state Pest Detection Emergency Projects.

Although the state conducted widespread aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion in 1989 and 1990, and has since used more environmentally friendly eradication methods such as ground spraying or the use of sterile fruit flies, the insects have been difficult to eliminate entirely.

Henry said increased tourism, international mailings and Asian immigrants who received packages from relatives all present a constant threat of re-infestation. “In the last 10 years, there’s just a lot more movement of packages and people. It’s just a more mobile society,” he said.

In November, 1988, Congress passed a law making it a criminal offense to ship prohibited plant material, punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and up to a year in jail. Since then, about 575 people have been charged an average fine of $250, said James R. Reynolds, western regional director for U.S. Department of Agriculture animal and plant health inspection service.

The U.S. Postal Service participated in the Hawaiian mail inspection project, but has been reluctant to allow agricultural officials to inspect packages without warrants, which can take up to two weeks to obtain, Sudduth said.

“So far, they have had a conservative interpretation of the law, not letting us go in without a warrant,” Sudduth said. “But we proved we could profile the packages accurately. Our accuracy was 99 to 100%.”

The offenders uncovered in the recently completed study, Sudduth said, were divided among those unaware of the law and others who attempted to evade it by indicating no return address. They were Hawaiian residents or tourists who shipped fruit to relatives.

Sudduth rejected the suggestion that the fly eradication programs were a losing battle.

“I think the chance of eradication is always there,” she said. “The chance of stopping them from arriving is what we’re looking at.”

Jim Rudig, area manager of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, said the public could play a key role in the ultimate success or failure of the eradication programs, and called for greater public awareness.

“If they were to receive prohibited material” such as fruits or plant material from abroad, “we would like them to dispose of it, wrapping it in plastic and putting it in the garbage,” Rudig said.

Two fruit fly eradication programs are in progress. The Mexican fruit fly is being targeted in the Maywood area, and the Medfly is being attacked in the Country Club Park area, both in Los Angeles County, where nearly 100 million sterile male flies are being released.