USDA has cut by more than half the number of quarantines imposed in California over the last year to prevent the spread of fruit fly discovered in the Los Angeles area last July.
Seven statewide quarantines have been reduced to three, where populations of Mediterranean and Oriental fruit flies remain, said Richard Johnson, national policy manager for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
In addition, the California Department of Food and Agriculture announced July 1 it has ended a year-long Tau fruit fly quarantine in the Santa Clarita area.
Meanwhile, Texas faces infestations of the Mexican fruit fly, which is capable of flying over the border. The state also faced seven quarantines, but only has three remaining following the USDA’s protocol.
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In California, more than 300 crop varieties were subject to strict regulations during quarantines – including fruits, nuts, vegetables and berries – and commercial crops faced pre-harvest measures.
“Normally with a quarantine you might have a dozen flies…this one there was just so many more, hundreds of fruit flies by the end,” he said.
Johnson added that these were the highest recorded numbers since counts began over 75 years ago, with citrus being a primary target for the flies.
The Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Program protocol involves surveying, where volunteers place traps and measure the size of the infestation, and control measures, removing host fruits and treating with organic pesticide.
Flies can be devastating; females lay eggs inside fruit, which can cause rot.
Johnson said controlling the infestation can be tricky especially around agricultural areas. From January to May, USDA and CDFA pickers removed more than a million pounds of fruit in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
“It's very important that, even if you are not a commercial fruit grower, you still follow quarantine regulations, so that, you know, that you don't move things outside the quarantine,” he said.
