Rains Prompt Repeat of Medfly Spraying

An unexpected rainstorm that hit Ventura County early Wednesday morning may have washed away pesticide sprayed hours earlier, prompting state and federal agriculture officials to schedule another aerial spraying next week in the battle against the crop-destroying Medfly.

Weather permitting, a makeup spraying of a 16-square-mile patch of eastern Camarillo will be conducted Wednesday at 9 p.m., said Douglas Hendrix, a spokesman for the state and federal Cooperative Medfly Project, the agency that conducts the aerial spray operations.

Hendrix said Wednesday morning’s storm, which came ashore after the three helicopters had completed their spray mission shortly after 1 a.m., dropped a little more than half an inch of rain over the spray zone.

“When we launched at 9 p.m. we still had a clear window in which to work,” Hendrix said. “It just goes to prove that Mother Nature can be very unpredictable at times.”

*

Hendrix said state regulations prevent the application of pesticides whenever there are winds in excess of 10 m.p.h. and whenever there is a 50% or greater chance of rain within a 24-hour period following the application.

Because the sticky mixture of malathion and corn syrup did not have a chance to dry on the Medfly-infested crops, the effectiveness of the bait spray is greatly diminished.

“The rain that unexpectedly fell last night most likely washed off our treatment,” said Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner W. Earl McPhail in a statement.

Hendrix said officials at Camarillo Airport on Tuesday night waited until just before the 9 p.m. liftoff time before calling the National Weather Service for confirmation that the chance of rain was within acceptable limits.

“Every time before the helicopters depart, our people call National Weather and the Navy control tower at Point Mugu to double-check the weather forecast,” Hendrix said.

*

Hendrix said he did not know what the percentage chance of rain was when the decision was reached to launch the trio of malathion-laden helicopters.

National Weather Service meteorologists in Oxnard could not say Wednesday afternoon what the exact percentage chance of rain was at the time of the aerial spraying. Meteorologists said that only a “slight” chance of showers was in the forecast Tuesday.

Terri Gaishin, chairwoman of the Camarillo-based Group Against Spraying People, or GASP, said the mishap was one that could have been prevented if the agriculture officials had been more careful.

“Clearly, these people should have erred on the side of caution in a case like this,” Gaishin said. “But in the haste to spray this chemical, they have become blinded to our safety.”

Gaishin said that the added spraying--the ninth since the operations began last fall--will cause about a dozen people who live in the spray zone and who have asthma and other respiratory disorders to once again pack up and leave the area.

“It’s really an awful imposition on many of the residents,” Gaishin said. “It really doesn’t seem fair.”

Hendrix said that residents in the spray zone will soon receive a mailer notifying them of Wednesday’s intended aerial spraying operation.