Sterile Fruit Flies Freed in Citrus Area
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Millions of sterile Mediterranean fruit flies were released over Tampa in a new effort to eradicate the feared agricultural pest, plague of Florida’s $8-billion citrus industry. The use of sterile flies is a form of biological warfare. State officials say the sterile flies will mate with medflies in the wild and die after mating, thereby ending the reproductive cycle. Release of the flies came after nearly two months of controversial aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion in the region of Florida’s west coast where the pesky fruit flies were discovered May 28.