Growers Sign Malathion Agreement : Medfly: Crop operation scheduled to begin Monday. Without signed pact and inspector’s seal, no produce may leave area.

Most Ventura County growers within the 86-square-mile Medfly quarantine zone have signed agreements to treat their crops for the pest under federal supervision, clearing the way for the first malathion crop spraying to begin Monday.

The compliance agreements call for growers to treat their crops with malathion, fumigation or cold storage before state inspectors will allow the fruit to be shipped outside the zone.

Without signed agreements and an inspector’s seal of approval, no produce is allowed to leave the quarantine zone.

But most of the intensive spraying will not begin until the first of November, as growers prepare for harvest of the big Hass avocado crop that begins in mid-December, said Don Reeder, whose company manages 2,000 acres of avocado and lemon orchards in the county.

“That’s when all hell will break loose,” he said. “Growers will have to decide whether it’s worth it to spray or whether to let the fruit fall to the ground and call it a year.”

More than 250 growers of the approximately 300 within the quarantine zone have signed compliance agreements, along with 76 packers, shippers and nurseries, said Doug Hendrix, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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The quarantine and subsequent aerial malathion spraying over urban areas were ordered after inspectors discovered the county’s first wild Medflies in an orchard on the grounds of St. John’s Seminary in eastern Camarillo on Sept. 28. The first of an expected 12 aerial malathion applications over a 16-square-mile eradication area was Wednesday night. The next of the biweekly sprayings is planned Oct. 26.

The aerial application, which sprinkled droplets of malathion and corn syrup bait over the homes of 32,400 people, is in addition to those required as part of the protocol growers must follow in order to ship produce out of the quarantine area.

That requires growers of host fruits within the quarantine zone to spray their crops with malathion at least once every six to 10 days within a 30-day period prior to harvest, or to fumigate with methyl bromide or to arrange for the fruit to be held in cold storage.

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Each treatment must be supervised by a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector. The department was interviewing and hiring more inspectors at the Ventura County Agriculture Commissioner’s office in Santa Paula on Friday, officials said.

Because it is the least expensive type of treatment, most growers choose the malathion-bait applications, said Van Johnson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s regulatory division.

Although the mix for aerial spraying over urban areas is 1.2 ounces of malathion per 10.8 ounces of corn syrup per acre, it is more concentrated for agriculture crops. The mix for crops is 2.8 ounces of malathion to 9.6 ounces of corn syrup. Up to 39 gallons of water per acre can be added for the crop spraying to make a mist that covers the crop. No water is added to the urban malathion mixture.

Strawberry growers, who have just planted their fields, are not affected because their fruit is not considered a host to the Medfly. Growers of oranges, which is a Medfly host crop, have already picked most of their crop for this year. Because they do not expect new fruit to be ready for harvest until next summer, they hope to avoid quarantine regulations altogether, Reeder said.

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“We’re hoping the quarantine is over by then,” he said.

The kinds of lemons grown in Ventura County are not considered to be a host to the devastating fruit fly. That means they will not have to be treated according to the protocol before they are shipped outside the quarantine zone.

Japanese officials already have said they will not accept any fruit from the quarantine zone, regardless of whether it is considered a host. And lemon growers have worried that the states of Texas, Florida and Louisiana, which also have Mediterranean-type climates, would either not accept the fruit or force it to go through the malathion treatments.

But Hendrix said Friday that those states have indicated they will accept the host fruit for import if it has been treated and will take the non-host fruits without treatment.

Growers, however, are still wary.

“We’re not completely sure yet as to where the fruit is going to go yet, and who will take it,” said Tom Pecht, president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

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Pecht said growers are glad that the first of the urban aerial spraying applications is complete. Growers are gratified by the support they have received from the community, he said..

But the days have been difficult since the first wild Medflies were discovered in Ventura County on Sept. 28.

“Any time there is a chance that your livelihood and industry is threatened, it makes for stressful times,” Pecht said.