Sterile Medfly Quality Control. Photo courtesy Mike Arbogast, USDA.
I wrote a blog entry a few months ago about invasive pests in San Diego County, focusing on Medfly because quarantine was in place in the Mira Mesa area. Well, we recently had new Medfly detections in Fallbrook and now have an active treatment program underway.
Two adult male flies were detected in one trap on October 29 and a mated female fly in another trap on November 1. Fallbrook is in northern San Diego County, an area known for its agriculture. The treatment plan includes using the Sterile Insect Technique, fruit stripping from trees within 100 meters of the infested sites and applying an insecticide developed from naturally occurring bacteria to foliage within one-eighth mile of the infested sites so any adult Medflies will feed on it and die. Read more... (381 words, 2 images, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)
Pest detection and management is an ongoing and extremely important area of agriculture. San Diego County has a robust agricultural industry—which means we are also faced with an ongoing battle to manage agricultural pests. Everything from Asian citrus psyllid to the Diaprepes root weevil to the Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly, has been found in our area and could greatly damage our agriculture and backyard crops.
For example, some areas of the County are currently under Medfly quarantine. After several years of no Medfly problems, we’re experiencing the second outbreak this year. Both Spring Valley and Mira Mesa, near the Mira Mar Marine Corps base featured in “Top Gun,” are quarantined. Medflies were found in backyard trees through the ongoing fruit fly detection program conducted by the County with federal and state funding. Read more... (539 words, 2 images, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)
Author: Robert Atkins, Agricultural Commissioner, San Diego County | Tags: