Over 85 square miles of Florida farmland were quarantined due to Oriental fruit fly plague. The aggressive infestation started in Miami in early September.
Popular for its nickname "Redland," the Miami-Dade Country is rich in red clay. The tropical climate lets farmers and distributors enjoy a year-round harvest. However, due to the recent Oriental fruit fly infestation in the area, things are unusually quiet.
J&C Tropicals operations manager Salvador Fernandez recounts how the coolers are often full this time of year. The Miami-based farming company grows avocado, passion fruit, dragon fruit and mamey sapote - a tropical fruit native to Middle America. The demand for tropical fruits, especially those from Asia and Africa, continues to grow in recent years. Farmers and distributors keep up with the demands by producing new varieties.
Florida farmers spotted the Oriental fruit fly infestation when they started harvesting the tropical fruits. The farming areas in Redland were quickly quarantined to contain the infestation. The pests were found in mamey sapote, dragon fruit, sapodilla, passion fruit and guavas. The affected crops were destroyed and over 160 Oriental fruit flies have already been found.
"[The Oriental fruit fly] feeds on the fruit. It pierces it, lays its eggs, causes obviously a very unpleasant condition in that fruit when those eggs are laid in there", said Adam Putnam, Florida's agriculture commissioner who declared a state of emergency.
Putnam announced the government's plan to use an aerial pesticide spray called GF-120 to kill the pests. Irate farmers grilled the agriculture commissioner asking when exactly the aerial treatment will happen. Farmers are worried that the longer they wait, the faster they will lose their livelihood. They want the aerial treatment to happen as soon as possible to avoid the expansion of the affected areas. Spraying will most likely start when the scientists find larvae or when there is a rise in the numbers of captured flies, Putnam said.
Plant Industry Division Director Dr. Trevor Smith from the Department of Agriculture explained that the aerial spray will not kill larvae inside the affected produce. The decreasing numbers of pests found may indicate the effects of insecticide and pheromone-laced traps already in place.
Hand-spraying Malathion pesticide on the crops is another option the state is looking into. Putnam's team flew to Washington to get clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use Malathion in the Redland crisis. The pesticide eradicated the outbreak of Mediterranean fruit flies in 1989 and 1997 in the United States. Large doses of Malathion can cause dizziness and nausea in humans but the EPA-approved hand spray can be used for insect control in residential areas. Putnam is hopeful they will get approval by late September. Unfortunately for farmers, Malathion will strip them of their organic status.
Florida has survived around 75 fruit fly infestations in the past 90 years. Paul Hornby from the U.S. Department of Agriculture expressed his confidence in the farmers' and scientists' knowledge of the Oriental fruit flies. He is hopeful that the state will be able to rise from the situation in the next few months. The quarantine is expected to end on Jan. 18, 2016.
Florida farmers try their best to save some of the crops using a costly treatment process before distribution. This process was approved by both the state and federal government but not all farming companies in Redland can afford it. Fernandez said the industry might suffer a $700 million dollar loss if the pests will not be exterminated soon.
