The Fly That’s Bugging California : Malathion generals on the bombing run again

The helicopters are back. This time, the pesticide malathion is being sprayed on the Riverside County cities of Corona and Norco. It was only four years ago that malathion-spewing helicopters flew over communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties in an attempt to eradicate the pest, once and for all. But the persistent Mediterranean fruit fly has returned to Southern California--if it ever really left.

State officials say they have no plans to resume aerial spraying in Los Angeles, Orange or San Bernardino counties, which currently are under quarantine and are battling the Medfly with sterile flies in the hope of breeding the pest out of existence. But officials say there aren’t enough sterile Medflies to carry the fight to Riverside County, hence the spraying.

The folks in Corona and Norco understandably are up in arms about the spraying. That’s because the state is offering no better answers than before to the key questions raised by the Medfly issue: Is eradication even possible? Is the state even daring to ask itself what happens if the Medfly cannot be eliminated as a threat to California’s $18-billion agriculture industry? And, the question that most concerns most Southern Californians: Is malathion spraying safe?

State officials say it is. A scientific review panel set up by Gov. Pete Wilson agreed that malathion was generally safe, but it also called for further research. More needs to be known about the pesticide’s long-term effects, the panel noted, adding that aerial spraying of malathion should be used only as a last resort.

One pregnant Medfly was found in Corona in December. Does that discovery really mean it’s last-resort time? More than 400 Medflies were found in L.A., Orange and San Bernardino counties last year, but so far agriculture proponents of spraying have managed to avoid tangling again with vehement anti-spraying protesters in those communities.

State officials, always fearing the spread of the pest into farmlands farther north, said the Medfly find in Corona marked a new spread of the pest that must be put down. Lucrative foreign markets for California fruit are at stake.

Of course, everyone wants the Medfly to go away. Problem is, it won’t cooperate. And another problem is that state officials, having repeatedly declared the Medfly “eradicated,” only to later have to spray again, have precious little public credibility left.

Under the best-laid plans, all the anti-Medfly efforts would pay off and the bug would be little more than a memory. But the history of the last several years doesn’t leave much hope for that rosy scenario. Wilson and his top science and agriculture advisers must ask themselves: What happens if, soon, California must admit that the Medfly has established itself here permanently?