Provided by Dr. Marion Fuller
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS)
Report Dated 05/26/98
Yesterday's report contained the latest fly count. Traps are being read today, but I won't have a count until later this evening. I'll report it out in tomorrow's update. We had another fly detected outside the treatment area - south of the southern border. We are hoping that the counts will begin to show a downward trend - an indication that ground applications are succeeding.
Ground treatment continues. Because of difficulty obtaining adequate coverage using hand held sprayers, we have added truck mounted equipment to reach the upper canopy in the larger trees in the area. (There are a lot of these, and there has been concern that we were not able to get material where a significant portion of the flies may be - which is particularly important considering the fly density in the "hot spots").
In addition, we continue to honor requests from property owners not to treat their property. While the numbers are not excessive, this can become problematic when properties are contiguous.
Environmental Monitoring - No report
Health Monitoring - The Manatee County Health Department received 8
calls last week, most of these informational
in nature. No exposure cases have been reported.
Fly count is stable at 1314.
There are a total of 3890 traps deployed: 3076 Jacksons, 558 panel traps, 206 McPhails, and 50 ITPs.
USDA is petitioning EPA for additional aerial application as recommended by the Science Advisory Panel.
Environmental Monitoring: No report
Health Monitoring: No report
Sterile Medfly Release Program - No update.
I was asked for some information on the economic impacts of the quarantine in the Bradenton area. This is somewhat out of my area of expertise, but I made a few calls, and the folks I spoke with agree that the impacts are significant. Seven packing houses (tomatoes) are affected (don't know how many growers/or tomato acreage). For those of you that aren't familiar with the fresh tomato industry - Tomatoes are harvested at various stages of ripeness, and are graded by color. There are six color grades - from green to ripe (my terminology is probably inaccurate, so bear with me...) Florida tomatoes are fresh market tomatoes - they are not canning tomatoes, so there is no "processing" option in lieu of the fresh fruit market as there is in most citrus. There is no acceptable treatment for "ripe" tomatoes (the latter three grades) that might be harboring eggs - fumigation destroys the quality of the tomato.
There are regulations for fruit coming into the quarantine area, as well as for fruit within the quarantine for movement out. The packing houses in the regulated area cannot accept any fruit that is beyond the first three grades as these could harbor eggs. They must cull any fruit at the latter stages, along with other blemished or damaged fruit. The culls are going to the landfill for burial. According to USDA, this is resulting in a loss of about 20 truck loads of tomatoes per packing house, per day. The cost for disposal is running about $250 per load, (I believe this covers just the "burial fee) and in addition to that, the packing houses are having to pay the landfill to stay open in order to accept the loads which are running from about 1:00 pm to 1:00 am. They are also having to absorb the cost of the backhoe and driver(s) during these hours, as the fruit must be buried upon receipt. The packing houses must be tarped/screened. Trucks must be covered also. To put this in perspective, the expected gross revenues (pre-Medfly) were estimated at $100 M this week alone - with an estimated loss of $20 - 30M.
I hope this helps, but please consider my discussion about the impacts as tentative information. I generally don't include this type of info unless I've had adequate opportunity to verify it, which I was not able to do today. If you need more info, I can direct you to others in our Department, or others in the industry.
FDACS - Division of Plant Industy:
Mediterranean fruit fly information
USDA APHIS: Mediterranean fruit fly information
UF/IFAS Fact Sheet ENY-809:
The Mediterranean Fruit Fly
UF/IFAS Fact Sheet ENY-626:
Mediterranean Fruit Fly: What Floridians Need To Know