Traps Are Laid in Oceanside After Two Female Medflies Are Caught

Two Mediterranean fruit flies were trapped in Oceanside, leading agricultural officials to believe there is a small infestation in the area.

An immature female was found in a trap last Friday and a mature female was found nearby Nov. 16, Bill Routhier, area manager for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said Wednesday. Neither had mated, he said.

“Two flies generally indicates there’s an infestation,” Routhier said. He said it was probably a small infestation in its early stages.

To try to quash the problem, agriculture officials have set 1,318 traps west of Interstate 5 in Oceanside, he said. A thousand of the traps are in a 1-square-mile area surrounding the traps where the Medflies were found.

Agriculture officials also are cutting samples of fruit growing in the area to look for Medfly larvae. So far no larvae have been found. If they were found in fruit, nearby trees would be stripped and the fruit would be buried underground, Routhier said.

The Medfly attacks more than 250 species of fruit, nut and vegetable crops. If it became established in California, an estimated $234 million in crops would be lost and gardeners and farmers would have to heavily treat with pesticides to keep produce free of maggots, officials said.

Routhier said the flies most often enter the state through plants or foods carried across state lines in violation of quarantine laws.

“We pick up an occasional single fly, but we’ve never had an infestation in the county that I know of,” he said.