Activities are underway today in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill following the discovery of a single male Queensland fruit fly in a surveillance trap.

The fly was identified this morning as part of New Zealand’s national surveillance programme, involving almost 8,000 traps around the country. By setting traps for these pest insects, we can find them early, know exactly where the problem is, and respond quickly and effectively.

There have been 14 previous incursions of different fruit fly in Auckland and Northland and all have been successfully eradicated thanks to the work of Biosecurity New Zealand, horticulture partners such as KVH, and local communities who have stepped up to help.

The capture of a single male does not mean we have an outbreak, however, response activities over the next 72 hours will include ramping up trapping and inspection, with daily checks in a 200m zone from the original find and checks every three days in a second zone out to 1500m.

As a precautionary measure, Biosecurity New Zealand will be putting legal restrictions in place on the movement of fruit and vegetables out of the area where the fruit fly was found.

Instructions about these controls, and the exact area affected, will be issued tomorrow (Thursday). In the meantime, people who live and work in the suburb are asked to not take any whole fresh fruit and vegetables out of their property.

Biosecurity staff will be out tomorrow providing people with information, and field officers may ask to look at fruit trees on properties.

KVH is working closely with Biosecurity New Zealand and other horticultural Government Industry Agreement (GIA) partners on these actions to minimise the risk to kiwifruit growers.

Read more about the detection and response activities on the Biosecurity New Zealand website here.