The California Department of Food and Agriculture plans to release millions of insects marked with purple dye in a Los Angeles neighborhood, SFGate reported Thursday.
On October 18, the department quarantined 69 square miles in Los Angeles County after two wild Mediterranean fruit flies, also called medflies, were discovered in the Leimert Park neighborhood.
In a press release announcing the quarantine, the CDFA stated that it is working with the United States Department of Agriculture to address the fruit fly infestation.
The CDFA told Los Angeles County residents that it plans to aerially release sterile male medflies as part of its Mediterranean Fruit Fly Preventive Release Program, first launched in 1996.
“The release rate will be 250,000 males per square mile per week in a 9 square mile area around the infestation,” the department explained.
“Matings between these sterile males and wild females result in the production of infertile eggs. This ‘birth-control’ approach can be used to prevent, and eradicate Medfly populations, with no side-effects on the environment,” the CDFA’s website states.
SFGate reported that the program could take six months or longer to eradicate the fruit fly population.
Ken Pellman, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Agriculture Department, told the outlet that the insects are marked with purple dye, loaded onto an airplane, and then “just released out of the bottom of the cabin.”
“We don’t want it becoming established and growing and spreading to commercial agriculture areas,” Pellman told SFGate, referring to the medflies. “Then it becomes a big problem.”
Pellman suspects the insects were brought into California via produce that was not inspected.
The department noted that the program has effectively reduced the number of infestations by over 90%.
“In addition, properties within 200 meters of detections are being treated with an organic formulation of Spinosad in order to remove any mated female Medflies and reduce the density of the population,” the CDFA’s press release continued. “Finally, fruit removal will occur within 100 meters of properties with larval detections and/or multiple-adult detections.”
As part of the quarantine effort, the CDFA urged gardeners to consume their fruits and vegetables on-site or, if disposing of produce, to double-bag it before placing it in a trash can.
According to the department, medflies target over 250 types of produce.
“Damage occurs when the female lays eggs inside the fruit,” the press release explained. “The eggs hatch into maggots, which tunnel through the flesh of the fruit, making it unfit for consumption.”
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