Mexican fruit flies spur quarantine for growers around Valley Center

Millions of dollars in fruit crops are at risk in northern San Diego County after the discovery of the invasive Mexican fruit fly in Valley Center.

County officials said it is a small population and a 77 mile quarantine area has been established to eradicate them.

"These pests hitch-hike into our region," San Diego County's Agricultural Commissioner Ha Dang said.

Dang said state and federal agriculture officials are in town overseeing the quarantine and making sure fruits are being treated and cleaned. State officials will soon release sterile fruit flies to try and disrupt the reproductive process. They have also been removing fruit and doing spot treatments.

Dang has been holding town halls near Valley Center, speaking with concerned growers in the area.

"What we're hearing from the growers is it’s going to impact the operation, it’s going to increase the production cost and as you know that could be resulting in potential cost increases for the consumers," she said.

Growers in the quarantine have to treat fruits with an organic pesticide and inspect them before they can be sold, a process that can be anywhere from 30 days to more than 100.

Female flies inject their eggs inside ripening fruit, then hatched larvae eat the fruit’s flesh, causing it to rot and drop to the ground.

"So it’s a pest we can’t tolerate," said Warren Lyall, who owns Lyall Enterprises, a 250 acre avocado and orange farm in Pauma Valley.

Lyall is also president of the San Diego County Citrus Pest Control District. He only has about 5 acres of oranges in the current quarantine area. He plans to treat them soon but worries about others.

"There are a few people that I’ve heard about that will lose their crop this year because of that," Lyall said. "We’re getting right up to the end of our Valencia orange harvest season so we’ve got to get started on this right away."

Lyall is a third generation grower. He remembers a larger fruit fly infestation in 2002 that threatened his crop.

"The quarantine lasted almost a year, and it was hard," he said.

Even though he was in the quarantine area two decades ago, he dodged the fruit flies and has so far during this infestation. The quarantine will run through at least June of next year and could go longer if the flies cannot be eradicated.

San Diego County officials said random trapping is what led to the fruit flies discovery. Avocados are included among the fruits at-risk, but officials said the popular Hass avocados grown in the area are not.

Commercial growers and those with private gardens in the quarantine area are urged to not move fruit from their property.