Country: United States

Title: Bactrocera cucurbitae (melon fruit fly) – Removal of Quarantine Area in Kern County, California

Contact:
Wayne Burnett, APHIS Exotic Fruit Fly Director, Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Programs, at (301) 734-4387

Report: Effective June 3, 2011, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) removed the Arvin area of Kern County, California, as a melon fruit fly quarantine area. As a result, there are no remaining melon fruit fly quarantine areas in Kern County, California.

On August 19, 2010, APHIS designated portions of Kern County as fruit fly-quarantine areas restricting the interstate movement of regulated articles from that area in order to prevent the spread of melon fruit fly to noninfested areas of the United States. Since that time, APHIS has worked cooperatively with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Kern County Agricultural Commissioner to eradicate the transient melon fruit fly populations through various control actions, including the placement of an increased level of traps baited with a male attractant in order to remove the males from the population and inhibit the reproduction cycle.

Eradication was concluded after sufficient time passed without finding additional melon fruit flies in those areas. Specifically, an intensified fruit fly trap surveillance system was deployed and monitored for three life cycles calculated through a modeling process specific for melon fruit fly. Accordingly, APHIS removed the melon fruit fly quarantine area in Kern County on June 3, 2011. This change is reflected on the following designated website, which contains a description of all the current Federal fruit fly quarantine areas:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/fruit_flies/quarantine.shtml

APHIS anticipates following this action with the publication of a notice in the Federal Register informing the public of this change.

Under IPPC standards, Bactrocera cucurbitae is considered to be a pest that is absent: eradicated from Kern County, California in the United States.
 

Posted Date: July 11, 2011, 9 a.m.