Provided by Dr. Marion Fuller
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS)

Reported dated 05-11-98

Fly Count: Two more flies were trapped over the weekend, bringing the total count to 1308 for the project. These flies were located in the treated area, and will not cause the treatment area to expand.

Malathion bait applications: Wind speeds prevented Sunday's application. Under the guidelines approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), no aerial applications will take place if wind speeds exceed 10 mph. This was the case for all of Sunday. Consequently, a partial application was made this morning, and again this afternoon, while the weather was favorable. They will attempt to finish this application tomorrow morning, wind speeds permitting.

For those of you who aren't as familiar with the program, USDA/FDACS are attempting to keep applications limited to a single day when possible. This is less confusing for several reasons.

• If you split the application, you have potential confusion with which day which area will be treated, and at what times.
• As happened this weekend, weather doesn't always cooperate. Increasing treatment days increases the chance of delays, which increases potential confusion and frustration.
• In addition, in order to break the life cycle of the fly, applications need to be made at roughly 7 day intervals. They cannot be made closer than 5 days, nor longer apart than 10 to achieve this purpose. The more application days you have, the more confusing this gets to the public, when weather doesn't cooperate.

All of these concerns/issues have to be balanced with the needs/desires of the community, i.e., days or times of day they would like us to avoid if possible.

During the preparation for Sunday's application, a small leak developed in the bulk tank holding the malathion-bait mixture. The leakage was small, and was handled very well, and according to standard protocols. EPA and DACS/Compliance were on site at the time, and observed the containment/cleanup process. Fortunately, the leak was relative high up along the side of the tank, and the hole was pretty small. Absorptive material was used, and affected soil removed. Personnel responded quickly and efficiently and proper safety precautions were observed.

Environmental Monitoring: Pre-application samples for two lakes in last Tuesday's treatment area:

Lake Yale and Bay Lake - both below detection limits. Water samples are pending.

Drift cards:

• Lake Yale: waters edge and 50 m from water's edge: below detection limits; positive at 100 m and 150 m from water's edge; below detection limits at 190m from water's edge.
• For Bay Lake: water's edge, 50 m, 100m, 150m, and 200 m from waters edge: all positive.

Detection limits have not changed.

Personnel were monitoring sites captured in today's application.

Health Monitoring: No report.

Regulatory activities: A meeting will be held with growers in the quarantine (regulated) area tomorrow morning to go over proper procedures for handling fruit within the area, and to ship outside the area. FDACS/DPI and USDA continue to work with flea markets, fruit stands, and similar businesses to provide information on how they must handle fruit during the quarantine, what can and can't be moved in and out of the area, etc.

Trapping continues throughout the 135 square mile area.

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