Country: United States

Title: Anastrepha ludens (Mexican Fruit Fly) - Quarantined Area in Webb County, Texas - United States

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Report: The Mexican fruit fly is currently under eradication, in three counties of Texas. This Official Pest Report provides notification that the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service is expanding the Mexican fruit fly quarantine area in Texas to include areas in Webb County, and is applying restrictions on interstate movement of regulated articles from that area. Mexican fruit fly has been detected as a transient population in the Laredo area of Webb County, Texas, which necessitates eradication actions. These actions are necessary to prevent the spread of Mexican fruit fly to non-infested areas of the United States.

One adult mated female Mexican fruit fly was detected on March 6, 2007, in a McPhail trap baited with torula yeast in the Laredo area of Webb County, Texas. The trap was on the property of a community college within an urbanized area. This detection triggered the initiation of this expansion of the quarantine area. The detection site is within 200 meters of the U.S. border with Mexico, and the established quarantine boundary encompasses approximately 31 square miles of Webb County, Texas.

There are no commercial host production sites in the quarantined area. The Laredo International Airport is within the quarantined area; in addition, two international vehicular/pedestrian land border crossings and one rail crossing are also within the quarantined area. The closest commercial host production is about 125 miles southeast of the detection site in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Fruit fly traps have been deployed at protocol levels to conduct a delimitation survey surrounding the detection site. Foliar bait spray treatments, using a protein bait spray containing Spinosad, are being applied to all host trees within 200 meters of the detection at 7 to 10 day intervals. The aerial release of sterile Mexican fruit flies is being conducted as a further control measure. The weekly release rate is 320,000 sterile Mexican fruit flies per square mile in a 3.5 square-mile area surrounding the infested property. Both the foliar bait spray treatments and the weekly release of sterile Mexican fruit flies will continue through two projected life cycles of the Mexican fruit fly in the Laredo area.

This action is effective immediately. Under IPPC standards, the Mexican fruit fly is considered to be a pest that is transient: actionable and under eradication in the United States.
 

Posted Date: April 25, 2007, 9 a.m.