No New Oriental Fruit Flies Found

Ventura County agriculture officials have not found any additional Oriental fruit flies after checking the Santa Paula area Friday. Officials examined extra traps that were set out after one unmated female fly was discovered there this week.

Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said testing will resume Monday and continue for seven days to determine if a quarantine is required.

McPhail said investigators would have to find several flies and examine the location and concentration of the findings before possibly implementing a quarantine. Agricultural officials say the Oriental fruit fly does not pose as serious a threat to local crops as the Mediterranean fruit fly--which infested Camarillo last fall and forced a 10-month quarantine of fruit from an 86-square-mile area.

The larvae of both flies destroy fruits and vegetables, but Oriental fruit flies are easier to eradicate. The male is easily lured and killed with chemicals. Because no similar lure exists for Medflies, they are often killed by aerial spraying of the controversial chemical malathion.

McPhail said agricultural officials are still trying to determine the source of the fly they found.

The last Oriental fly was found in Ventura County in 1992. But McPhail said that further checking shortly afterward revealed no others.