San Diego quarantine Mex fruit fly

[spaugh]

77sq miles quarantined in north cou ty near valley center.   Not good, the bugs destroy all kinds of crops including citrus and avocados. 

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2022-08-24/fruit-fly-quarantine-valley-center

[BestDay]

That’s not good. I hope they can contain it.

Bill

[Victoria Ave]

Shit

[roblack]

That sounds scary, really hope they can get this eradicated and out of the area.

[TREESNMORE]

What do you expect with a open border

[spaugh]

Yeah, if only we had finished the wall it would keep out the fruitfly !  Brandons fault...

[roblack]

Yeah, if only we had finished the wall it would keep out the fruitfly !  Brandons fault...

lmao

[BestDay]

That’s pretty damn funny. 😀😂😀😂

[DFfarmer]

We are in the Quarantine Zone, growing lots of things on the "Host" list. We signed the agreement right away. We can't afford to lose all of our sales. We are two weeks away from being able to harvest Guava, Passion Fruit, Pomegranates, and about three for Cherimoya.  Thank goodness Pitahaya is not on the host list.

Really glad we could use the Spinosad bait, rather than the Malathion, we are certified organic. Besides being gentler on the natural predators, it's much easier to work with, no heavy duty protections required. On the plus side,it may help to keep that black fig fly out of here. I have not seen it yet, it is one of the insects I am worried about. It was pricey stuff, but "Entrust" for the citrus psyllid, is about three times the price, so glad we don't have to do that.

One thing I have to do now is to pick all damaged fruit on the host list, and any dropped fruit, double bag it, and throw in the trash. Have to do that daily. I'm also not composting any fruit material , even peels, till the Quarantine is called off, don't want to take any chances of having those fruit flies reproducing here. One of the worst things I can think of is having a customer find larvae in their fruit.

[spaugh]

What agreement did you sign?  Just curious, I would probably be hesitant to sign on with anything with the government.  What do they give you in return for you tossing your harvest, or what are the terms?

[DFfarmer]

What agreement did you sign?  Just curious, I would probably be hesitant to sign on with anything with the government.  What do they give you in return for you tossing your harvest, or what are the terms?

 Sorry did not check back, it was a "Compliance Agreement". Commercial growers are required to do this or they cannot sell their produce. Since we are Certified Organic and sell to grocers, we have to go along with whatever rules are put in place. We were the first farm to sign an agreement, and it's because we grow, harvest, pack, and transport everything ourselves, we don't have employees or contractors working with us. Being Organic, we have to submit to inspections yearly by our certifier, and often the CDFA will come out too, so we have to be ready for that. since the citrus psyllid came to town we have to cooperate. This is the first quarantine we have been part of, one of the low points in farming but at least the staff has been positive, and informative and helpful.

The farms who had fruit flies found in fruit or on the property had their crop destroyed, we were told, that is enough of a threat. Those who sign the compliance agreement, and who treat once a week for four weeks, (actually its 5 but what they hey, we can at least sell our crop), can get a clearance to harvest specific crops and sell them. We are using GF 120 naturalyte ( Spinosad). Malathion plus bait is the option for conventional growers.  The Mexican Fruit fly has a host list of over 60 plants, many subtropical , annonas, all green skinned avocados, guava, passion fruit, pomegranate, even apples and pears! I do not want to be a fruit fly home, I'd rather skip that, so far, so good.