TRAPS SET ACROSS AREA IN T.O. AFTER MEXICAN FRUIT FLY FOUND.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

State and county agricultural crews are setting traps across 9 square miles in the heart of Thousand Oaks after the discovery this week of a female Mexican fruit fly, a serious fruit-destroying pest, officials said.

They are moving quickly to hang 400 glass-jar traps in citrus and avocado trees in residential yards to determine whether the fruit fly is a loner or signals an infestation that must be eradicated. The answer won't come for 70 or so days, officials said.

``We've only found the one. That might mean there are more, that might mean it was just carried in,'' said Earl McPhail, the Ventura County agricultural commissioner. ``That's why we do the increased trapping. If there's anything in there, we're going to find it.''

The single Mexican fruit fly was discovered in a backyard trap near Moorpark and Janss roads on Tuesday. A California Department of Food and Agriculture entomologist confirmed its identity on Wednesday, triggering the saturation trapping.

This is the first Mexican fruit fly ever found through the annual trapping program the county operates across both residential and agricultural areas, McPhail said.

Although not as infamous as the Mediterranean fruit fly, the Mexican fruit fly can be similarly destructive.

Slightly larger than a housefly with a yellow-brown body and wings banded with yellow and brown, the Mexican fruit fly attacks fruit by laying eggs under the skin. Maggots bore through the pulp and rot the fruit from the inside, and the infested fruit drops to the ground where the fly pupates.

Because agriculture is the number one industry in Ventura County, pumping nearly $1 billion into the economy, the discovery is a major concern. The county citrus industry generated $241 million and the avocado industry generated $59 million, according to the most recent crop report.

Longtime growers like John Lamb are not easily rattled by the discovery of a single fruit fly. But he said there is always cause for concern because even a manageable infestation will result in significant crop and income losses.

``Hopefully this is something that's not real significant,'' said Lamb, a fifth-generation citrus and avocado grower with 270 acres in the Camarillo area.

Lamb recalled the Mediterranean fruit fly infestation that required the first-ever aerial spraying of malathion in the county in 1994. The spray area covered 16 square miles, including half of Lamb's orchards, and all fruit within an 86-square-mile quarantine zone had to be treated.

``It ended up costing us conservatively a hundred grand or more that year because it really had a negative effect on our beneficial insects. We had extra labor costs to spray trees and we weren't able to get into some markets,'' Lamb recalled.

McPhail noted that a fruit fly infestation in such a suburban area can spread to orchards to the west. ``It could spread very easily. They're very strong fliers and hitchhike well. It's important that you find it as you can.''

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MAP: Site of discovered Mexican fruit fly

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