Spring has sprung and MPI begins final push in fruit fly programme

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is asking Auckland residents to hang in there for just a few more months while it completes its programme to eradicate a small population of Queensland fruit fly in Grey Lynn.

Fruit flies tend to be inactive over winter and as a result response activities died down. However as the weather warms up, any fruit flies that managed to survive the earlier treatment blitz will become active and able to be trapped in MPI’s extensive network of lure traps.

Therefore MPI has resumed more frequent checking of the surveillance traps in the A Zone of the Controlled Area, closer to where the original flies were found.

While MPI is confident of success in the fruit fly eradication, it needs these next couple of months of trapping to verify this. At this stage, they are hoping to declare eradication and end the movement controls on fruit and vegetables before Christmas.

Click here to read MPI’s full press release.