Medfly: The 105,000 Dollar Bug

Last night we told you that the appearance of the medfly in Punta Gorda town threatens 100 million dollars in agricultural interests. It may seem an unfair exchange - 100 million dollars jeopardized by a few pesky bugs - but as Alfonso Noble found out when he visited the quarantine zone yesterday - the medfly is no regular bug - in fact it may be the most expensive pest on the planet:
Alfonso Noble, Reporting
It may look harmless, but the medfly is probably the most expensive pest on earth - every time one of these flies is found, the Ministry of Agriculture activates a 105 thousand dollar containment fund. And that's what's happened since Thursday of last week when Roberto Mai medfly technician with the Belize Agricultural Authority came up on a fertile female medfly - here on an almond tree in Punta Gorda town. He did not come up on it by accident. In fact it is part of a year round surveillance programme carried out countrywide. Roberto Mai, Medfly Technician "We go out in the field. We bring down every trap we have. We inspect them to ensure that no flies are within these traps. The trap that the fly was found was carried to the office, where we call the supervisor, report the matter. From the last detection yesterday I did a servicing where I found 6 additional flies. Up to date there was no confirmation that these flies are fertile - but we take the assumption that it is fertile."
With the assumption that the fly is fertile, agriculture personnel take on the task of minimizing of breeding environs.
Hernan Zetina, Supervisor, Medfly Programme "It is not unusual that we find one fly or two flies or a couple days or a couple weeks after we find the first since the flies are fertile they have new emergence every 10 days. So it's not unusual to find other flies but that's why we are doing the chemical application weekly in order to kill the other flies that are emerging. When we first found the flies we begin by fruit stripping - that is we delimited an area round the detection site and we moved all potential hosts and we destroyed the fruits so as to break the cycle of the medfly. Thereafter we set up quarantine checkpoints on the road and then we began weekly spraying so we'll be doing that for 90 days.
Roberto Mai, medfly technician "Those fruits we dispose of them a pit about six feet deep that has been dug into the earth and then buried and then we spray with malathion and then it is re-covered. This is for the prevention of larva or any eggs for it to come out and be released from the earth."
Zetina says that because of the threat the pest poses to a wide variety of fruits it is important to contain it and ensure that the public is on their side.
Hernan Zetina, Supervisor, Medfly Programme
"To date they have found that the medfly attacks close to 300 species of fruits. In Punta Gorda right because this is not an area that is producing fresh fruit for the export market, we're not worried about fruit. If we have any fruit loss it would be backyard fruit. But what we need to do is ensure that the fly does not go to the other fresh fruit producing areas such as papayas or citrus. We are asking the public's cooperation in refraining form bringing in fruits or vegetables that are potential medfly hosts form neighboring countries such as Mexico, Guatemala or Honduras as you know Punta Gorda has a border with Guatemala and we were recently told that there were also medfly outbreaks in Gautemala and Honduras also has a medfly problem throughout the year."
With that residents living within the quarantine zone in Punta Gorda are urged to cooperate with agriculture authorities to ensure that the devastating medfly does not propagate and spread into the delicate and dollar based agriculture industry.
There have been no new medfly discoveries in three days...