California IN BRIEF : SAN DIEGO : Spraying Begins for Oriental Fruit Fly

The state’s first Oriental fruit fly infestation of the year has broken out in San Diego County, where workers began applying pesticide on about 4,200 trees and telephone poles over a seven-square-mile area Wednesday. Four of the destructive flies were discovered in traps--three in Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch and the fourth in Hillcrest--in recent days, prompting a coordinated state-county effort to eradicate the pest. On Wednesday, about 20 county workers placed 200 additional traps in the target area while a three-member state team started applying bait that attracts male Oriental fruit flies with a fly sex aroma mixed with pesticide.