Treating Queensland Fruit Fly in a Quarantine Area

This from the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner's Office:

Basically the baiting treatment (for growers) involves 2 options: For conventional farms the material is Malathion 8 Aquamul mixed with Nulure Insect Bait and for organic growing the available product is Spinosad GF 120 Naturalyte which comes premixed with a fruit fly bait. The treatments that CDFA is performing for residents within 200 meters the QFF finds is only the organic Spinosad.

This treatment differs than a standard broadcast spray in a few ways. First, this method uses very little product. Only 20 ounces per acre are needed for the Spinosad treatment, and only 2.8 ounces per acre of Malathion is needed. Secondly, not every plant or tree is needed to be treated. The purpose of the treatment is to create spots throughout the field or orchard where any present flies would be attracted to and then die on contact. The pattern of treatment for growers under the quarantine compliance agreements is every tree or row ends on the perimeter and then every plant/tree approximately every 20ft of every 6^th row inside. Thirdly, the entire plant/tree does not need to be covered, only a quick spritz or spot is needed on each chosen plant, typically somewhere on the trunk or cane if possible. This is what is meant by creating a ‘bait station'.

For growers under quarantine, a schedule of treatments must occur during one full life cycle of the fly, and also under CDFA supervision before they may harvest. Growers MUST be under compliance agreements with either the State or County before they can begin this process. Our office is offering pre-quarantine compliance agreements to growers near the current boundary so they may preemptively start the process in case the quarantine were to expand.

Growers/Residents can contact our office at pestexclusion@ventura.org or (805) 388-4222 if they have any questions regarding this pest

QFF

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