Single Medfly Found in Camarillo Spray Area : Agriculture: Official doubts the latest discovery in the eradication zone is evidence of a new outbreak.

A single, wild male Mediterranean fruit fly was discovered Tuesday in an orange grove on the grounds of St. John’s Seminary in eastern Camarillo, state and Ventura County agriculture officials announced Wednesday.

The discovery brought the total number of flies found in the 16-square-mile Medfly eradication zone to 64 since Sept. 29 when the first of the crop-destroying pests was discovered, said Douglas Hendrix, a spokesman for the state Cooperative Medfly Project. The last fly to be discovered was on Oct. 6.

“We’re obviously not happy about the discovery, but we do not think we are going to see dozens more,” Hendrix said. “This kind of discovery is fairly normal.”

Hendrix said that state agriculture workers made the discovery of the fruit fly during a routine search of sticky panel traps in the orange grove Tuesday morning close to the site where the first Medfly was found.

Suspecting it was a Medfly, the workers trucked the specimen to a state lab in Bell for examination. When that examination proved inconclusive, the fly was shipped overnight to state labs in Sacramento where state entomologists confirmed that it was a Medfly.

The fly was found about 24 hours after the third aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion in eastern Camarillo on Monday night. Previous spraying missions were conducted by state helicopters Oct. 12 and again Oct. 26.

Agriculture officials believe the fly that was trapped on Tuesday was among the first group discovered in late September, but may have been in larval form and therefore unaffected by the pesticide sprayings.

W. Earl McPhail, Ventura County agriculture commissioner, said the recent snap of cold weather may have kept some of the flies in larval state longer than in warmer climates.

“We do not believe this is evidence of a new outbreak,” said McPhail. “We think this fly was among those in the same outbreak we encountered in September. We shouldn’t forget that this was a fairly heavy infestation.”

State agriculture officials said they have no plans to beef up the toxicity of the sticky bait mixture of malathion and corn syrup, increase the number of aerial spraying missions or increase the size of either the 16-square-mile spray zone or the 86-square-mile quarantine area as a result of the new discovery.

Adding to the troubles of agriculture officials was a five-day postponement of the aerial spraying missions to combat the pest. Following a Gulf of Alaska-bred rainstorm that hit the area last Wednesday, officials postponed the flight until Monday only to be confronted by high winds, which delayed the takeoff time by about half an hour.

Adding to the problems were electrical problems aboard the helicopters that do the spraying. Hendrix said that about 45 minutes into Monday’s flight, circuit breakers were automatically tripped on pumps that dispense the pesticide from large booms connected to the bottoms of the aircraft.

“They returned to the airport and mechanics re-set the breakers,” Hendrix said. “They then took off again and didn’t have any other problems.”

Hendrix said the next aerial spraying of malathion has been scheduled for 10 p.m. Nov. 29--an hour later than the normal takeoff time to accommodate evening holiday shoppers who may be out later than normal.