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Fruit Flies Sound Alarm in Fresno: Discovery of Second Pest in Week Prompts an Eradication Plan.

Posted on: Thursday, 18 May 2006, 12:04 CDT

By Dennis Pollock, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

May 18--Discovery of a second fruit fly in a west Fresno neighborhood Wednesday has triggered an eradication effort that will start today.

Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner Jerry Prieto Jr. said baiting stations will be placed mostly on utility poles inside a mile-and-a-half radius of where the peach fruit flies were found.

The first insect was found Monday near Clinton and Cornelia avenues, the second Wednesday near Polk and Yale avenues.

Prieto said he has informed officials with the Central Unified School District of the planned applications, which involve using a combination of a chemical lure and pesticide sprayed on utility poles. He said he assured them none will be made on school grounds or playgrounds.

"The material that is being used will be 10 feet above the ground," he said. "It does not pose a hazard to people or pets."

Unlike past efforts to address such pests as the glassy-winged sharpshooter, he said, it will not involve drenching sprays on plant material or the ground, and it will not mean going into residents' backyards.

Leaders in the farm community said they were pleased with the quick response of county and state agencies.

Although it's believed this is the first time the pest has appeared in the central San Joaquin Valley, there have been at least a half-dozen eradications elsewhere in the state since the mid-1980s, all of them successful, said Jay Van Rein, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Insect experts and industry leaders said the insect pest, which could damage a wide range of fruit and vegetables, is easier to kill than Mediterranean or Mexican fruit flies. They hope the eradication program will prevent having to impose of an 81-square-mile quarantine, which could occur if four more of the pests are found.

Officials initially had said the discovery of eight of the flies would trigger a quarantine but upgraded that to six because the area in which the pests were discovered is more rural.

"It's not like we haven't gone through these things elsewhere before," said Barry Bedwell, president of the California Grape and Tree Fruit League. "We're confident this will take care of the issue. This is an appropriate response."

Van Rein explained that "male annihilation" will be used. That involves involves squirting small patches -- about the size of a half-dollar -- of a combination attractant and pesticide on utility poles.

Any male peach fruit flies are drawn to a pheromone in the bait called methyl eugenol. Also in the bait is the pesticide that kills them, dibron.

Although Van Rein and others expect the baiting stations will dispose of any insect threat, he acknowledged that subsequent detection of "a breeder population" could result in spraying with an organically approved treatment called spinosad.

A breeding population is defined as one that includes larvae of the pest or a mated female.

Van Rein said the treatment used against the peach fruit fly is "a good example of how treatments have advanced" from 30 years ago when the controversial aerial spraying of malathion was used in Southern California to combat the Mediterranean fruit fly.

"This is benign, in terms of the environment," he said. "We're using the pest's life cycle against it."

He added that the Mediterranean fruit fly continues to plague parts of Southern California but has been kept in check by the release of sterile Medflies.

Van Rein said 600 of the bait stations will be placed per square mile in about a 9-square-mile area around the Fresno neighborhood. The material will be squirted on poles at least every two weeks for about two months.

Guidelines call for trapping, baiting and monitoring for "two life cycles" of the insect after a find. The length of the cycles varies, depending on temperature, but is expected to last about two months.

"This insect could do a lot of damage," said Norm Smith, entomologist with the Fresno County Department of Agriculture. "But it's not on a par with the Mexican or Mediterranean fruit fly. They don't respond as well to the pheromones. If we had to get one here, it's better that we got this one."

The insect originates in South and Southeast Asia and can damage about 50 varieties of fruit, including peaches, apricots, citrus and figs as well as vegetables. It has spread to other parts of the world, including several countries in the Near East and Egypt.

Smith said it appears likely the insects emerged from larvae in fruit that was rotting, fruit that may have been tossed on the ground or placed in a garbage can.

"What's not known is if these came from one piece of fruit with maggots in it or a whole batch of fruit," Smith said.

Smith and industry leaders including Joel Nelsen, who heads California Citrus Mutual in Exeter, said the insect finds illustrate hazards that can be posed by improper disposal of fruit.

"As the Valley becomes more urbanized, the sensitivity of a new population to those hazards is not as great as it once was," Nelsen said. The region's ethnic diversity and increased international travel pose greater challenges today, he said.

"That's why we were so concerned about the airport and flights on Mexicana" Airlines, Nelsen said. He emphasized that he believes the airport and city have responded well to concerns from agriculture and have safeguards in place.

Blair Richardson, who heads the California Tree Fruit Agreement in Reedley, said he believes the discovery of the insect pests and quick response show "the system that has been put in place works."

"Unfortunately, exotic pests are sometimes brought in by people who don't pay attention of the laws" that prohibit transport of fruits and vegetables, Richardson said.

"We're encouraged that government agencies are reacting quickly," he said. "We're nowhere near a quarantine situation."

Carol Hafner, a Fresno County deputy agricultural commissioner, declined to repeat just what she said when she first laid eyes on the first dried-out insect found this week in a trap placed near a loquat tree at a Fresno residence.

"You couldn't print it," she said. "As soon as I looked at it, I knew it was not a good thing."

That fly was sent to a state laboratory in Sacramento for exact identification, taking the same trip the second did. But even before it was on the road to that lab, the county set about putting out more traps and taking a closer look to see whether more of the flies were nearby.

"We didn't wait for confirmation," said Hafner, who has spent 16 years as a field marshal in the war on insects that could have devastating effects on the county's $4 billion agriculture industry.

For 16 years, she has looked for insect pests in residential neighborhoods, orchards and vineyards, doing incoming inspections at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport, looking at ag exports and checking packages at Federal Express and United Parcel Service.

"If we catch it early and in a small area, we have better chances of containing it," she said. "You can't take your sweet time."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Fresno Bee

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