Three More Medflies Discovered; Lake Forest Area Quarantined

The discovery of three more Mediterranean fruit flies in Lake Forest has prompted state officials to quarantine a segment of South County and announce plans to release 5.5 million sterile medflies in the area every week until the problem is solved.

“We consider this a minor infestation,” said Kevin Herglotz, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “Any time we find a medfly, however, we are concerned because of the devastation that these pests can cause in our state.”

Tuesday’s find, confirmed by a lab early Wednesday, brings to five the number of medflies found in Lake Forest in the past week. Another six medflies have been found in San Diego County since Monday.

The flies, which usually enter California via prohibited foods or agricultural products brought in from other countries or states by unwitting travelers, can destroy more than 250 varieties of fruits, nuts and vegetables by laying their eggs in the ripening fruit and rendering it inedible and unmarketable.

“If an infestation were to get out of control,” Herglotz said, “the cost to consumers and the state would be in the millions and billions of dollars.”

The last time Orange County experienced an infestation, agricultural officials said, was in 1993 when about 14 flies were found.

“It’s a very serious situation,” said Rick Le Feuvre, the county’s commissioner of agriculture, “but the state has a plan that has worked very well in the past and we are confident that it will work now.”

Under that plan, state officials will begin releasing the sterile male medflies in the infected area starting Saturday. The hope is that the sterile flies will mate with the others, preventing them from laying their eggs.

In addition, Herglotz said, state workers will continue spraying trees in the area with a corn-based syrup bait laced with Malathion, a poison known to be deadly to the fruit flies.

They will also continue trapping and fruit-sampling to determine where else medflies might be present.

And, Herglotz said, the state has declared a quarantine area in a 4.5-mile circle centered roughly around El Toro Road and Rockfield Boulevard in Lake Forest.

“In terms of keeping it contained, it’s not in a major agricultural producing area,” he said. “But the fear is that these things can spread very quickly.”

Residents of the affected area are urged to not move home-grown fruit within or outside the quarantine boundaries, Herglotz said. And commercial growers, state and county agricultural officials said, will not be allowed to ship their product without adhering to strict state procedures regarding its treatment and inspection.

“It will impact a segment of our industry,” John Ellis, Orange County’s deputy commissioner of agriculture, said regarding the county’s $276-million annual agricultural business. “Some growers will have to delay production and go through certain treatments before they can harvest.”

Ellis said the quarantine would affect about six Orange County growers, mostly producers of tomatoes and peppers. In addition, he said, it could affect some of the area’s nearly 50 wholesale and retail nurseries.

“This could be an inconvenience,” Le Feuvre said, “but it has happened before and we have always gotten through it.”

The quarantine and other preventive measures are expected to be in place for at least two to four months, state officials said.