Traps Added After Fruit Fly Is Found

The discovery of an Oriental fruit fly in Simi Valley has spurred Ventura County to step up a trapping program, a county agricultural commission official said Tuesday.

While the chances that the find last Thursday will blossom into a full-fledged infestation diminish with each day, the discovery of a second fly would mean serious trouble for county fruit and vegetable producers, said David Buettner, chief deputy agricultural commissioner for Ventura County.

The county has laid an additional 50 traps near the discovery site in northwest Simi Valley, and daily checks have come up negative, Buettner said. The county must wait at least three months--the average life span of a fruit fly--before the pressure is off, however.

“We are cautiously optimistic,” Buettner said. “If you don’t find anything in the first week, it points to it being a transient fly rather than an infestation.’

A transient fly usually travels on fruit and produce sent through the mail or brought into the country by travelers, Buettner said.

“There is not only apathy about the seriousness of bringing fruit into the country, there is outright contempt,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura Farm Bureau. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that they found one.”

The find is not expected to affect the county’s export business yet. Most countries wait for the discovery of a second fly or an egg-laden female before enforcing a quarantine, Buettner said. Others, such as Japan, wait for the federal government to announce an official quarantine.

“One thing that is always a concern is losing the import market to Japan,” Buettner said. Japan is responsible for the lion’s share of California’s annual $4 billion in produce exports.

Gera Curry, information officer of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said a local infestation would pose a threat to California’s $18-billion produce market.

“If the fly became established, it wouldn’t be limited to only Ventura County,” Curry said. “It could spread statewide.”

Just two years ago, the state of California completed a $63-million eradication effort aimed at the Mediterranean fruit fly, a smaller and peskier cousin of the Oriental fruit fly. But pockets of Medflies continue to spring up, particularly in Los Angeles. The last Oriental fruit fly found in Ventura County was a lone male in 1990.

The Oriental fruit fly, or Bactrocera dorsalis, is slightly larger than a housefly and is easily identified by its yellow legs, Curry said. It is far less costly to eradicate than the Medfly because the males can be easily duped with an insecticide-laden bait, Curry said. Medfly eradication often requires aerial spraying, she said.