Quarantine for Oriental Fruit Fly Established

State agriculture officials on Thursday established a quarantine area for a huge swath of the San Fernando Valley where infestations of the Oriental fruit fly have been discovered.

The quarantine covers a 55-square-mile area that includes all of Sherman Oaks and parts of Studio City, North Hollywood, Valley Village, Encino and Van Nuys, state officials said.

State agriculture workers found 15 Oriental flies in Sherman Oaks earlier this week and identified fly larvae in fruit on nine properties on Tyrone and Katherine avenues and on Hortense Street, said Myrlys Hollis, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture.

A quarantine means that residents are prohibited from taking fruits and vegetables out of the quarantine area, and commercial growers and vendors are under strict regulations to prevent the fly from spreading to other areas.

The first three flies were captured Aug. 30 in a year-round trap monitored by state agriculture officials on Hortense Street, said Jim Wiseman, a supervising inspector in the Los Angeles County agriculture department’s pest detection unit. Twelve more flies were discovered between the first find and Sept. 9, Wiseman said.

Agriculture officials also caught one fly on Marshall Street in Culver City last July and conducted eradication efforts in the Wilmington area earlier this year, Wiseman said.

Of the Mexican, Mediterranean and Oriental fruit flies, which damage fruits and vegetables, the Oriental fly is captured most often, Wiseman said.

“Anytime you have an infestation of these exotic fruit flies, it can pose a danger, but with the Oriental fruit fly we’re lucky enough to have a good lure or attractant,” Wiseman said. “In this case it’s a food lure.”

The Oriental fruit fly uses the host fruits and some vegetables to incubate eggs and hatch larvae, Wiseman said.

“It has a wide host range and likes particularly such tropical fruits as peaches, nectarines, apricots, apples, quince and citrus fruits, tomatoes, peppers and melons,” he said.

The eggs are placed just underneath the skin of the fruit, and feed off the fruit after the larvae are hatched, Wiseman said.

Agriculture officials will use a mixture of a pheromone that attracts male flies with a pesticide that poisons them, effectively killing off the male population. Typically, the paste-like lures are placed high atop utility poles. Agriculture officials hope to wipe out the next four generations of male flies over the next eight to nine months, Hollis said.

“The lure causes a chemical reaction on the antenna of the fly and directs him to it,” Hollis said.

The proposed quarantine, which awaits approval from the state Administrative Office of Law, is generally bounded on the north by Roscoe Boulevard; on the east by Lankershim Boulevard to the Ventura Freeway; on the southwest by the San Diego Freeway at Bel Air Crest Road, and on the northwest by the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and White Oak Avenue, Hollis said. The area also includes a portion of Vanowen Street to Woodley Avenue, she said.

On Monday, state officials extended the quarantine area for the Mediterranean fruit fly to include all of Pacoima. The Oriental fruit fly, easily identified by its yellow legs, is larger than a housefly and much easier to eradicate than the Medfly, Hollis said.

Oriental fruit fly quarantines have been called in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in the past, Hollis said. The last quarantine in 1991 centered around Ontario and included a 152-square-mile zone, Hollis said.

Seven Oriental fruit flies were discovered in Buena Park, Anaheim and Santa Ana in Orange County last month.