Two female Mediterranean fruit flies, or medflies, were found in Santa Clara County last week. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) set up a 109-square mile quarantine zone to stop their spread.
For the next four to six months, CDFA will release 21 million sterile male medflies a week over parts of San Jose, Campbell, and Santa Clara. The goal is to stop medflies from reproducing.
That might seem like a dramatic response to finding two tiny bugs, each the size of a grain of rice — but it’s not. Medflies are invasive to the US, and can devastate crops. The last serious medfly infestation in California was also in the Bay Area, back in 1981.
Archival Tape from ABC News Palo Alto: 500 conservation workers are going house to house stripping the trees of all fruit, which serves as the host to the Mediterranean Fruit Fly.
It cost the state $40 million to exterminate the medflies. To prevent this from happening again CDFA is asking that residents in the quarantine zone refrain from transporting any food they grow on their property. So if you live in San Jose, now is not a good time to bring your homegrown tomatoes to a friend in Oakland.
If you’re in the quarantine zone CDFA recommends inspecting your garden regularly for signs of invasive fruit flies or maggots, and reporting any findings to the pest hotline (1-800-491-1899).
