Country: United States

Title: Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) eradicated in the United States

Contact:
John Stewart, APHIS Exotic Fruit Fly Policy Manager, at (919) 855-7426

Report: Effective March 15, 2013, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) removed the regulated area for Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) in the Rancho Cucamonga area of San Bernardino County, California.

On August 16, 2012, two adult male Medflies and one unmated female med fly were detected on a single residential property in the Rancho Cucamonga area of San Bernardino County. An additional wild male med fly was detected the same day at another site approximately a mile and a half away. On August 27, 2012, APHIS, in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), established a Medfly regulated area encompassing approximately 88-square miles of San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties.

APHIS applied restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles from that area to prevent the spread of Medfly to non-infested areas of the United States. APHIS worked cooperatively with CDFA and the San Bernardino County Agricultural Commissioner’s office to eradicate the transient Medfly population from the Rancho Cucamonga regulated area through various population control activities. These activities included increased trapping, regulatory controls, releasing sterile male Medflies in the area surrounding the detection sites, and the application of foliar spinosad bait sprays near the detection sites.

An intensified fruit fly trap surveillance system was deployed in the area and monitored for three life cycles calculated through a modeling process specific for Medfly, and no additional fruit flies were detected. As a result, APHIS removed the 88 square-mile regulated area in the Rancho Cucamonga area of San Bernardino County on March 15, 2013. The removal of this regulated area is reflected on the APHIS website.

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

Under IPPC standards, Ceratitis capitata is considered to be a pest that is absent: eradicated from the Rancho Cucamonga area of San Bernardino County, California in the United States.
 

Posted Date: April 24, 2013, 9 a.m.