AGRICULTURE: U.S. Customs finds olive fruit fly in SD

Olive fruit fly larvae were found on fresh olives that a
passenger from Lebanon was trying to carry into San Diego
International Airport, the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday.

Agriculture specialists working at the airport on Oct. 4 found
several olive fruit fly larvae on almost nine pounds of fresh
olives that were packed inside the passenger’s baggage. Travelers
are prohibited from bringing olives from Lebanon into the United
States.

Dawn Nielsen, deputy agricultural commissioner in San Diego
County, said that the olive fly has already infested most of the
state —- particularly the Central California region, where a
commercially viable industry remains.

San Diego County first saw the olive fruit fly in the late 1990s.
“We found one or two in 1999, and by the end of the year we found
hundreds in our traps,” Nielsen said.

She said the olive industry once was vibrant more than half a
century ago, but has since become a “hobbyist” crop for some
growers interested in making olive oil.

“In San Diego County, this pest is already here, but the
commercial crop is limited,” Nielsen said. “Had this been a pest
that we didn’t have, and nobody had caught it, it could have been
devastating.”

Olive fruit fly feed exclusively on olives, and are a serious
pest of cultivated olives in most countries around the
Mediterranean Sea. According to the University of California Agriculture and
Natural Resources Pest Notes, the fly was first detected in
California in 1998 and are now found in all olive-growing areas of
the state.

The larvae of the olive fruit fly feed inside the fruit,
destroying the pulp and rendering the fruit susceptible to
secondary bacterial and fungal infections that rot the fruit.

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