SAN DIEGO : Oriental Fruit Fly Infestation Averted

The state Department of Food and Agriculture said it has stopped a few Oriental fruit flies from becoming a full-blown infestation in San Diego County. Workers have been spraying insecticides in parts of the county since August, when three fruit flies were trapped in lemon and orange trees in the Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch areas. The spray zone was expanded from six square miles to about 14 square miles in early September after three more flies were trapped in a Poway fig tree. The eradication process includes biweekly sprayings of a mixture of insecticide and fly sex attractant on hundreds of trees and telephone poles. No new flies have been found in Poway since the original trapping.