In July, the California Department of Food and Agriculture lifted a quarantine for the Tau fruit fly in Santa Clara due to eradication. CDFA said the tau fruit fly was first detected in Santa Clara in July 2023.
The department recently announced it also ended Mediterranean and Queensland fruit fly quarantines in Southern California due to eradication.
CDFA first detected the Mediterranean fruit fly in Los Angeles. The quarantine encompassed Inglewood, Hawthorne and parts of Culver City.
The Queensland fruit fly was first detected October 2023 in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The department said the quarantine it established in Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Santa Rosa Valley in Ventura County and Agoura Hills and Westlake Village in Los Angeles County were the first in the Western Hemisphere.
More than 300 crops are hosts for both Mediterranean and Queensland fruit flies.
“Last year, California experienced an unusually high population of invasive fruit flies, and the response required coordination from residents, agricultural industry members and agricultural commissioners in both counties,” Victoria Hornbaker, director of CDFA’s plant health and pest prevention services division, said in a news release. “Through this coordination, we’re incredibly proud to have successfully achieved the eradication of several species of invasive fruit flies in Southern California — including Mediterranean, Queensland and Tau — but the threat is never completely gone.”
An existing quarantine remains in the state for the Oriental fruit fly in the Redlands area in San Bernadino County.
Related link: More about invasive species
