Share those strawberries! Invasive fruit fly species eradicated across California

People in Los Angeles, and across California, are once again welcome to share and sell their produce after five species of invasive fruit flies have been eradicated in the state.

Local, state, and federal officials on Tuesday celebrated the end of the largest outbreak California has ever seen, with quarantines affecting agriculture in L.A., Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, and four other counties.

Christine Birdsong, undersecretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), said the Tau and Queensland fruit flies were among the species eradicated after being found for the first time in this part of the world, but cautioned people to not let their guard down going forward.

“We still need your help, Californians,” she said at a news conference from the Culver City Farmers Market. “Invasive species, invasive pests are devastating to our communities, including the ability to grow fruits and vegetables in our backyards. They threaten our agriculture industry and the rural communities that depend on a vigorous California agriculture industry.”

How we got here

Five species were found in California last year: Oriental, Tau, Queensland, Mexican, and Mediterranean fruit flies.

Kurt Floren, the agricultural commissioner and director of Weights and Measures for L.A. County, told LAist there were at least two serious outbreaks — Tau fruit flies that were found in Santa Clarita, and Mediterranean fruit flies that hit the heart of L.A.

“Between the wholesale produce market and LAX, that entire area ended up under 128 square miles of quarantine,” he said.

While the Mediterranean fruit flies are known to be one of the most destructive species, Floren noted they’ve never dealt with a Tau infestation.

A Mediterranean fruit fly at the Medfly PRP facility on the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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Thousands of agricultural employees were mobilized across California, armed with a pair of eradication techniques. They released millions of sterile fruit flies to put a wrench in reproduction, and applied an organic treatment called Spinosad that’s toxic to the invasive species. But it still took “months and months” to get rid of all the fruit flies, he said.

Floren added that L.A. County is somewhat unique in the sense that a majority of homes and yards have fruit trees. So while it may not seem like an agricultural hotspot, Floren said, it’s really one “continuous orchard.”

Officials repeatedly credited people living across the state, including thousands in L.A. County, for taking the quarantines seriously, not sharing produce, and dealing with losing some of their harvest to fruit stripping.

Victoria Hornbaker, director for plant health and pest prevention services at CDFA, told LAist they worried the impacts would last much longer, as there’s more than 300 types of fruits and vegetables that could be hosts to the flies, including strawberries and citrus. And while everything is back to normal now, she said officials remain vigilant.

“We maintain our large array of detection traps for all of the fruit fly species, and a variety of other species that we don't want coming into California,” she said. “So we're constantly looking. If we find something, we're going to act quickly.”

What you can do to help

There’s several steps you can take to help make sure these invasive species don’t return to California.

If you take a trip out of state, don’t take any produce home with you, and that includes shipping it. If you try to put it in a package, it could end up being stopped by a well-trained dog.

Bear is a "detector dog" that inspects thousands of packages for produce to make sure invasive species aren't being brought into California.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Similar to weapon or drug-sniffing pups, Bear sorts through thousands of packages looking for fruit and vegetables to make sure they’re not accidentally adding to the problem.

“Someone sending you plants, vegetables, fruits from another state, another country, is a prime pathway for spreading invasive pests,” Birdsong said. “Don't do it.”

If you find a suspicious looking bug when you cut into produce, you should call CDFA’s pest hotline at (800) 491-1899 or email reportapest@cdfa.ca.gov.

And if an agriculture official knocks on your door asking to access your backyard, first check their ID, Birdsong said, then invite them in to put up or check a trap.

“This is so important in terms of continuing our surveillance efforts and our monitoring,” she said. “The sooner we can catch an invasive pest, the easier it is to deal with it.”

When in doubt, you can check quarantines throughout the state here. If you are in a quarantine, or near a quarantine, do not move fruits, vegetables, or plants. That includes for your family, friends, and neighbors.