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Fruit flies discovered in Escondido
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
State says it will issue quarantine | ∞
ESCONDIDO -- A destructive fruit fly that has prompted multimillion-dollar quarantines since 1999 in Fallbrook and Valley Center has been discovered in Escondido, state and county agriculture officials said Wednesday.
Officials said they trapped five Mexican fruit flies in two locations near Oak Hill Drive and Bear Valley Parkway in Escondido, a discovery that will trigger spraying and a new quarantine that could last well into next summer.
California Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman Steve Lyle said the discovery will automatically trigger a quarantine, inside which growers and nurseries will not be allowed to sell or ship fruit and agricultural products without being treated.
Lyle said the state would not know how large the quarantine area would be for several days because inspectors need to set and monitor more traps to find out how spread out the fly infestation is.
County Agriculture Commissioner Bob Atkins said that any quarantine will have to be at least 81 square miles, a little more than five miles in every direction from the initial find.
A county worker discovered the female fruit flies in two weekly monitored traps Tuesday, Atkins said. He said state Department of Food and Agriculture officials confirmed Wednesday that they were Mexican fruit flies.
Lyle said state crews working with county workers would begin spraying the areas by hand with backpacks carrying a pesticide today, and hoped to spray areas within 200 yards by Friday.
Mexican fruit flies are extremely destructive pests that have vexed local growers in the last decade.
The discovery of two fruit flies in 1999 in Fallbrook led to an eight-month quarantine that cost an estimated $2.83 million in crop losses, according to county officials. A 2002 Valley Center infestation prompted several months of quarantine over 130 square miles that cost about $2 million.
The female Mexican fruit fly destroys more than 50 kinds of fruit by injecting its eggs beneath a fruit's skin. The resulting maggots dine on the fruit's flesh until it rots and falls to the ground, where the pupae crawl out of the host fruit and into the ground. Adult flies emerge from the ground in 12 to 25 days.
Lyle said that the state would eventually begin bombing the quarantine area with sterile Mexican fruit flies in the hope of eradicating the pest.
State officials in past interviews have said that fruit flies typically mate just once, and if you pair a fertile female with a sterilized male, it does an incredible job of stopping future generations.
Federal agriculture officials have routinely bombarded the U.S. Mexico border with sterile fruit flies for decades.
Flies are grown by the millions in laboratories in Mission, Texas, and in Mexico, and eventually zapped with radiation to make them sterile and dyed to make them recognizable to inspectors.
Giant balls of flies are chilled to put them to sleep, then dropped out of airplanes over infested areas. The flies warm up, and wake up, as they drop to the ground.
-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
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Linda wrote wrote on Nov 7, 2007 6:17 PM:I just cant imagine how they got here all the way from mexico.
Al wrote on Nov 8, 2007 6:18 AM:So now what do we do? I'm sure the ACLU will not let us attempt to eradicate this problem. That would be a violation of their illegal bug rights. Now do we have to provide them free medical assistance, food and a college education? I'm sure we can't round them up and deport them. Congress would state that we didn't have the money for that. We should just get them all together and ship them to Washington DC so that the flies and the rats can be together.
Ray wrote on Nov 8, 2007 7:22 AM:Hey "Puritans"! now you can call your reps and plea to them to create a National Insect Infestation Patrol before we have a problem with illegal insect migration. Your reps know you are so gullible they can hide their errors and cover them with a big Illegal Immigration sign.
Sue wrote on Nov 8, 2007 8:56 AM:Loved your comment Al, thanks for starting my day off with a smile....by the way, the ag officials will not strip all my fruit tree's this time like they did years ago here in L.E. Took them several years to recover not to mention all the fruit that was lost....Trap the trees that are street accessable!!!
Ralphie wrote on Nov 8, 2007 8:57 AM:Once again, Escondido, the armpit of the North County, makes its presence known. Thank you, Escorndido!
Not by themselves... wrote on Nov 8, 2007 9:28 AM:How much of our produce that we purchase on an everyday basis is grown in other countries ? The answer is - most of it. Try to find fruit and vegetables grown in the US. And next we have water rationing for the farmers - which should not be allowed, since they will already have been hit on many sides. In the coming years, if we are not careful of what we have, we will be importing everything we eat. Those fruit flies didn't get here by themselves, they were brought in on fruits or vegetables that came across the border. I thought we'd seen the last of them for a while, but we haven't. Another item worthy of news coverage is the plight of the honeybee. If we spray to eliminate the frut fly, are we eliminating what is left of our honeybees ?
Where do Mexican wrote on Nov 8, 2007 9:46 AM:Fruit Flies come from? Did they have a visa? A passport? Or are fruits being smuggled into the country also? Is there a coyote for fruit flies? C'mon now this is important we need to know!
Theotis wrote on Nov 8, 2007 9:46 AM:Maybe it's a good thing. It puts more protein in the fruit. Good for every illegal alien...
Rats in America wrote on Nov 8, 2007 9:46 AM:If you are trying to say that illegals brought the flies (ridiculous) then you would need to apply the same logic and blame Europeans for the presence of Rats in North America. Look it up.
Geeze wrote on Nov 8, 2007 9:55 AM:I get tired of this. Tell the citizens what day the crop duster will be spraying the City, myself and my family will be staying indoors that day.
American woman wrote on Nov 8, 2007 10:34 AM:Darn! I guess we are going to have to make that wall higher and put netting obn it! :>)
resident wrote on Nov 8, 2007 2:05 PM:stop subsidizing these growers with free water anyway. stop growing in san diego county. lets hope these bugs destroy every crop here.
Karl wrote on Nov 8, 2007 6:48 PM:Here's to hoping some bug or regulation dries up "resident's" source of income.
Amazingly wrote on Nov 8, 2007 9:39 PM:You funny funny people find a way to bring the ACLU into it. Anything to attempt to smear the ACLU.
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