New fruit fly threat in Southern Calif.
LOS ANGELES - An infestation of the white striped fruit fly has been found in Southern California, marking the first detection of the Southeast Asian agricultural pest in the Western Hemisphere, state authorities said yesterday.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that starting today, several thousand traps will be placed in 15 square miles of eastern Los Angeles County in the La Verne area, where seven of the flies were found in traps.
A local quarantine on the movement of fruit will be put in place after surveys determine the extent of the problem, said Steve Lyle, a Food and Agriculture spokesman.
How the fly arrived is not known, but the department’s mantra of “don’t pack a pest’’ focuses on the likelihood that travelers bring them in on plants and foods that haven’t been inspected.
“We know that invasive species like this are hitchhikers,’’ Lyle said.
In Southern California, the foreign flies find a hospitable climate. La Verne, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, was a citrus-growing region in the early 20th century but is now a residential and college town.
The discovery of the white striped fruit fly opens the latest front in California’s decades-long battles with nonnative bugs that threaten its agriculture.
Earlier in July, the state detected a new infestation of the Oriental fruit fly in La Verne and began trapping for that pest. The state also only recently declared the Mexican fruit fly eradicated in nearby Azusa and lifted a 2008 quarantine on the passage of fruits and vegetables.
The white striped fruit fly is an agricultural pest because females lay eggs inside fruit and the hatched maggots tunnel out.
The agriculture department said the fly damages the fruit of many kinds of trees, especially guava and mango.
