An invasive fruit fly species has brought an agriculture quarantine to parts of Orange County, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).
Officials issued the alert after eight oriental fruit flies were detected around the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove. Residents under quarantine are asked not to move homegrown fruits and vegetables from their properties to help prevent the spread of the invasive species, the CDFA said in a release Wednesday. The flies are known to target over 230 fruit, vegetable and plant commodities.
The quarantine zone stretches about 87 square miles in Southern California and includes the areas surrounding Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Santa Anna. A map of the quarantine zone can be found on the CDFA's website.
The oriental fruit fly is native to the South Asia mainland and neighboring islands, such as Sri Lanka and Taiwan. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the invasive species was first detected in the United States in the mid-1940s, in Hawaii. Over the past decade, the fly has been increasingly detected in California because of increased international air travel.
The CDFA said in its release that the "most likely pathway" for the oriental fruit fly to reach California "is by 'hitchhiking' in fruits and vegetables brought back illegally by travelers as they return from infested regions of the world or in packages of home grown produce from other countries sent to California."
Newsweek reached out to the CDFA via email on Thursday for additional information.
California crops that are most at risk from the oriental fruit fly include pome and stone fruits, citrus, dates, avocados and many vegetables, particularly tomatoes and peppers. The CDFA said these crops are damaged when a female fruit fly lays eggs inside the fruit. Once those eggs hatch, the maggots "tunnel through the flesh of the fruit, making it unfit for consumption."
Residents who have homegrown produce in a quarantine zone are still able to consume or process their fruits and vegetables on the property where they were picked. Any produce picked from a quarantine zone should be disposed of by double-bagging the item in the regular trash, not through green waste, such as composting.
The CDFA said that it is working to eradicate the infestation by using a technique known as "male attractant." The method includes mixing a patch of fruit fly attractant with a small dose of organic pesticide and placing the mixture roughly 8 to 10 feet off the ground on structures like street trees, power poles and streetlights.
Male fruit flies are attracted to the mixture and perish after consuming it, the CDFA said. The method "has successfully eliminated dozens of fruit fly infestations in California."
English (US) ·