At home or even in a supermarket, when we see a fruit fly hovering over produce, we swat them away thinking they’re just a small, harmless insect.
We don’t give it much thought. But, the more you learn, the less likely you are to be tempted to bring produce home from traveling not just internationally, but state to state and sometimes even closer to home, city to city, when areas are under quarantine.
It’s been well established that carrying produce into the United States from international travel is prohibited, but people still attempt to bring it in.
We should pause before eating produce where fruit flies have been. Damaged and overripe fruit can contain fruit fly eggs or larvae that washing cannot remove, especially if the skin of the fruit is broken.
The Mediterranean fruit fly, the Mexican fruit fly and the Oriental fruit fly are non-native to California and don’t have any natural predators here, and are highly destructive.
“These flies lay their eggs inside the fruits and vegetables where they’re growing larvae or maggots. They feed and they ruin the produce from the inside out,” said Victoria Hornbaker, director, Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services Division, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). “It may still look good on the outside, but there are these maggots in there feeding and destroying the flesh of the fruit.”
While the CDFA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are eradicating them, if they aren’t controlled and become established, they can devastate California’s agriculture, home and community gardens.
“Invasive fruit flies can ruin more than 250 types of produce, causing serious threat to our agriculture and to the backyard fruits and vegetables that we love,” said Hornbaker. “In California, we grow over 400 types of specialty crops, and many of those can be threatened by these invasive fruit flies.”
Don’t Buy Produce Online
Buying produce and plants through online marketplaces or unverified sources increases the risk of invasive fruit flies and other harmful pests hitchhiking into our state.
If an outbreak became established, it would impact the state’s economy and hurt growers and businesses – including stores, restaurants and consumers.
“We would have higher food bills, less access to fresh fruits and vegetables, devastating losses to farmers and ranchers and losses to our own communities,” said Hornbaker.
“Invasive pests cost the United States approximately $40 billion each year in damages,” she said. “Preventing invasive pests before they enter California is a much more effective means than responding to large-scale infestations.”
Jordan Petersen, deputy agricultural commissioner/sealer, Los Angeles County Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures, said LA is a unique environment when it comes to pest prevention.
“We’re home to more than 10 million residents, and we’re also one of the most diverse regions in the country with really deep connections to communities around the world,” said Peterson. “We’re also a major gateway for people and goods moving into California, whether that be through international travel, our ports, freight or parcel shipping, and that movement and connectivity are part of what makes LA County so special.
“But they also create opportunities for invasive pests to hitchhike into California.”
LA County has 75 inspectors who work year round placing and checking traps that are designed specifically to attract invasive fruit flies as well as other agricultural pests. Different agencies play different roles in keeping invasive pests out of our communities at international ports of entry like LA International Airport (LAX) in LA County.
“You can think of this trapping network like an early warning system. Our goal is to find an invasive pest as early as possible, before it has the opportunity to reproduce, spread and become a much larger problem, but even better than detecting a pest early would be preventing it from getting here in the first place. So that’s where our county pest exclusion program comes in,” said Peterson.
“One pathway we focus heavily on is packages being shipped into our county, and there are a lot of reasons that agricultural items may end up in the mail. Someone traveling might ship home a favorite fruit or plant.
“Our teams have intercepted serious agricultural pests hiding on things like mangoes, guava, grapefruit, pineapple, truffle [and] plants, just to name a few,” he said. “It’s about finding that invasive pest while it’s still inside the package before it has the opportunity to reach our communities.”
There are detection efforts in place from various agencies to address the pathways.
There are checks with Customs and Border Protections on land and at airports with the Beagle Brigade – trained beagles that are able to sniff out fruits, vegetables and plant material in people’s luggage. But while effective, some produce still slips through.
“The secret weapon we have are our residents and public awareness,” said Abraham Lopez-Zuniga, emergency response team lead, CDFA.
Lopez-Zuniga doesn’t work in an office; he works in the field and echoes the mantra, “Don’t pack a pest,” because one person’s luggage or mailed produce can infest a neighborhood.
He loves seeing the pride residents put in growing vegetables and fruit in their backyards. But, once established, fruit flies can wipe out the harvest and move to a different place.
“It can start with the farmers, then go to the farmers’ markets that we love so much. It will go to the fruit stands and to the nurseries, and all of a sudden, it can grow and reach a very difficult point.”
If an invasive fly is found, inspectors are called and traps can be placed at the site followed by bait stations if additional fruit flies are found.
“We establish these delimitations, putting in more traps, not just near the area, but many many miles around, just to make sure that there are no more flies in the area, or if there are some, to see how far the infestation is there are and if there are enough detections of an infestation, a quarantine can be placed in the area,” said Lopez-Zuniga.
Infested fruit should be placed in a double plastic bag and tossed in the regular trash, not in a green bin. “If you do that, it’s gonna break the life cycle of these flies, and that’s going to help us, humongously,” said Lopez-Zuniga. “If your area is in quarantine, you should not give fruit to others but you can still juice and bake with it.”
“Right now, they are not winning,” said Hornbaker. “They continue to come at us, but between the CDFA, the USDA and the counties, we’re continuing to eradicate them. So we’re winning.”
To report a possible infestation residents can call CDFA’s hotline at 1-800-481-1899.