PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Florida Agricultural officials have discovered the destructive Oriental Fruit Fly in Pinellas County.
They have place a quarantine in the area to prevent it’s spread.
The state issued an order to homeowners saying, “do not move fresh fruit or vegetables off your property. Pick up any fallen produce, double bag, tie the bag and dispose of it in your household garbage.”
Commercial growers will have a separate set of rules.
The state has a monitoring program with 56,000 traps to catch fruit flies.
Dr. Trevor Smith with the Florida Department of Agriculture said if a single Oriental Fruit Fly is found they, increase the number of traps. The actions increase by the state, depending on the numbers of the exotic flies that are found.
“You get three males or even a single female and that kicks off an eradication program. In this case we have four males and a single female, but the good news is that is still a very small population and we clearly caught it very, very early,” said Dr. Smith.
In the late 90’s Mediterranean fruit flies were found in the area. State officials took trees out of private yards and used low flying aircraft to spread the powerful chemical Malathion over much of the Tampa Bay area.
Dr. Smith said, this time will be different.
“We don’t use Malathion anymore. We have an organic pesticide based on Spenocid. It’s called GF120 . It’s a bait spray. So essentially we spray it in the fruit trees that they go to, they go eat the bait and they die,” said Smith.
