http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/26/one-bug-quarantine-lifted-another-imposed/

One bug quarantine lifted, another imposed
By Leslie Berestein
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. August 26, 2009

As a fruit-pest quarantine is lifted in San Diego County, another is going into effect just to the north.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture announced yesterday that a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation in the Spring Valley area has been eradicated, ending a quarantine that began in late 2008.

The Spring Valley quarantine, which covered a 93-square-mile area, was declared after three wild fruit flies were detected in local traps in November.

Agriculture officials mounted an eradication campaign that involved weekly aerial releases of sterile male Medflies to mate with the wild female flies, stopping reproduction. Approximately 2.8 million sterile insects were released over the 11.2-square-mile quarantine area in the effort to protect fruit.

Separate Mediterranean fruit fly quarantines remain in effect in the Mira Mesa and Imperial Beach areas.

Meanwhile, the Asian citrus psyllid has been discovered in Orange County, with five of the pests discovered in traps in Santa Ana. Two species of the insect can can carry a disease known as huanglongbing, or HLB, that renders citrus crops inedible. This is the first time the psyllid has been trapped north of San Diego and Imperial counties, according to the agriculture department; a diseased psyllid was recently discovered in luggage shipped from India to Fresno.

The discovery of the insect in San Diego County late last summer, two months after it was detected in Tijuana, triggered a quarantine south of state Route 78 that remains in effect, with the movement of fruit and potential host plants restricted.

State agriculture officials have declared a new quarantine within five miles of the Orange County discovery site. Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the agriculture department, said the Orange County discovery does not affect the San Diego County quarantine.

Union-Tribune