On Saturday it was announced another Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) has been found within the current Northcote controlled area, bringing the total to eight over the past three and half months.

Biosecurity New Zealand is stepping up on the ground efforts in the suburb, including placing bait on fruit trees to attract and kill adult flies, in particular females. The current restrictions on the movement of fruit and vegetables remain in place and trapping and the collection of fallen fruit in some of the controlled area will continue.

While it is concerning there has been another detection, it still doesn’t tell us that there is a breeding population. What it does is raises the potential that QFF remain in the area, albeit at very low levels.

KVH continues to be closely involved in the running of the response as a member of the decision-making Governance Group, and as an industry we continue to help with on the ground activities via the KiwiNet group.

Read the full announcement from Saturday here.