Local News in Brief : Officials Declare Win Over Medfly
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Agriculture officials declared victory Monday against a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation in the San Fernando Valley, lifting a 62-square-mile produce quarantine that had been in effect for more than three months.
A total of six Medflies were found in the Valley in late July, but none has been found since then.
That number is “relatively small” when contrasted with an ongoing infestation of 48 Medflies in West Los Angeles, said Gera Curry, spokeswoman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture. The Valley eradication effort cost about $1 million in state and federal funds, she said.
Five days after Medflies were found July 20 in Northridge, a 16-square-mile area was sprayed from the air with malathion, a chemical pesticide. Officials later released about 317 million sterile Medflies in Northridge and Reseda to mate the pests out of existence.
“Any time we can declare the eradication of a Medfly or any exotic pest, it’s cause for celebration,” Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner E. Leon Spaugy said.
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