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Queensland Fruit Fly 24.02.15

24 February 2015

MPI have confirmed another single male fruit fly has been found in a trap within the Controlled Area, bringing the total to five fruit flies.

As advised in previous KVH updates, this is not a significant development and further fruit fly finds within the Controlled Area are expected over the coming week.

MPI is confident this remains a small localised population and will be successfully eradicated.

MPI response
Significant ground operations continue in the Controlled Area and are focused on applying insecticide bait.

MPI are using protein bait that attract and kill female fruit flies. This contains a very small amount of fipronil insecticide which is commonly used in pet flea collars. Targeted ground-applied spraying is also being used on trees found to contain fruit fly. Bifenthrin is the insecticide that will be used in this situation.

These treatments are safe for use in residential areas as they have been proven to do no harm to people or animals such as pets or livestock.

Today approximately 126 field staff are operating in the Controlled Area. This includes MPI, AsureQuality and kiwifruit industry resources deployed through KiwiNet.

  • 307 extra lure traps have been placed in the Zone A (200m circular area from original find location). These are checked daily.
  • 193 extra lure traps have been placed in the Zone B (1.5km circular area from original find location. These are checked every three days.
  • 10 extra lure traps have been placed in high-risk sites outside of the Controlled Area.
  • 544 Amnesty bins have been placed in within the Controlled Area and are cleared regularly
  • Residents in Zone A have been issued with their own dedicated Amnesty Bin to dispose of fruit and vegetable waste from their properties.
  • Residents in Zone B have been provided with information and have access to Amnesty bins at 200m intervals around the zone to dispose of fruit and vegetable waste.
  • Approximately 1300kg of produce waste is collected from these bins daily and safely disposed of.
  • 36 boundary signs have been erected advising people of the Controlled Area.

Potential market impact
Response from the markets has been measured. To date there have been no restrictions applied to horticultural exports from NZ.

Communications
KVH plans to reduce its industry communications on the fruit fly situation to a twice-weekly update through the KVH Bulletin Special Edition (Tuesdays and Fridays) and these will be made available on the KVH website.

However, should circumstances significantly change we will provide an update to industry immediately.

KVH are developing a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and these are available on the KVH website shortly. If you have any questions, please email KVH at [email protected] and we will endeavour to answer these through the website FAQs.

Detailed maps of the controlled area and a description of the boundaries, and full information about the situation can be found on the MPI website.