Ryan Ray
An Oriental Fruit Fly infestation in Miami-Dade County has risen to the level of an agricultural emergency, Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Adam Putnam declared Tuesday.
“The Oriental Fruit Fly is one of the world’s most destructive pests and poses a significant threat to Florida’s $123 billion agriculture industry and the two million jobs it supports,” Putnam said in a prepared statement.
“Miami-Dade County’s agriculture industry is a $1.6 billion industry, and we will use every weapon in our arsenal that’s necessary to eradicate this pest and protect Florida agriculture and our economy.”
In a release, FDACS said the insidious insect burrows into and lays eggs inside of hundreds of varieties fruits, vegetables and nuts including avocado, mango, mamey, loquat, lychee, longon, dragon fruit, guava, papaya, sapodilla, banana and annona.
Putnam’s office said the situation is especially dire heading into the winter months, when the nation has grown reliant on South Florida-grown agricultural products that are now threatened by the infestation.
The department said it is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to quarantine an 85-square-mile area where trees hosting the pests have been detected; treating a 1.5-square-mile area around each area of detection; and removing infected fruit (but not the trees) within 200 meters of affected sites.
Spinosad, also known as GF-120 NF fruit fly bait manufactured by the ag firm Naturalyte, is being used for ground spraying around infested sites.
