California officials to dump millions of flies over San Diego County residents

The state of California is waging war on yet another invasive species that poses a grave threat to the region’s multibillion-dollar agriculture industry, officials announced this week.

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According to a June 22 news release from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the Mexican fruit fly, a voracious pest known to destroy over 50 different types of fruits and vegetables, has been detected in San Diego County. Now, the department is working to rein in the destructive pest by releasing millions of them from special government aircraft, an eco-friendly eradication method known as the .

This form of biological control combats wild fly populations by mating them with sterilized flies reared in a lab, rendering offspring impossible. , these operations are authorized to continue until late December, and the department plans to dump up to 250,000 sterilized Mexican fruit flies per square mile per week in the area. The flies are harvested in a special lab and are usually marked with a special purple dye; they’re then loaded into a plane and dumped from the bottom of the cabin onto cities below. 

First discovered in Mexico in 1863 and along the California-Texas border by the 1950s, the Mexican fruit fly poses a “serious threat” to over 50 different types of fruits and vegetables, especially citrus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. After female flies deposit eggs under the fruit’s skin, the larvae feed on the produce, rendering it inedible. 

“This pest presents a significant, clear, and imminent threat to the natural environment, agriculture and economy of California,” . “Unless emergency action is taken there is high potential for sudden future detections in San Diego County.” 

To prevent the infestation from damaging farms and residences, California officials have established a 76-square-mile quarantine in the Spring Valley area, encompassing communities like Lemon Grove, La Mesa and La Presa, maps show. Within this zone, residents are urged to prevent the flies’ spread by eating homegrown produce on their own properties. 

Over the past three years, the government has fended off several infestations of oriental fruit flies, Mediterranean fruit flies and Tau flies across Northern and Southern California, most likely as a result of flies hitchhiking on produce illegally brought into the state. 

“The eradication approach used in the Spring Valley area of San Diego County is the standard program used by CDFA and it is the safest and most effective and efficient response program available,” the department’s June 22 release says.