Sterile Medflies to Be Used in Country Club Park

Millions of sterile Mediterranean fruit flies will be released next week over a 30-square-mile area around the Country Club Park section of Los Angeles in the continuing assault against the crop-destroying pest, state agricultural officials announced Wednesday.

About 50 million sterile flies will be set loose every week until late spring, officials said. Scientists hope the flies will mate with wild flies to breed the population out of existence. The release area is roughly bounded by Hollywood Boulevard and the Hollywood Freeway on the north, the Harbor Freeway on the east, Exposition Boulevard on the south and Robertson Boulevard on the west.

Since Oct. 7, 21 Medflies have been trapped in the Country Club Park area, prompting agricultural officials to intensify trapping and attack the infestation with ground applications of the pesticide malathion. The sterile fly release ends the ground spraying program.

No aerial pesticide spraying is planned, said Carl DeWing, spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

The sterile flies will be released from the back of slow-moving pickup trucks beginning late next week in Country Club Park neighborhoods. In perimeter areas, the flies will be dropped from small planes flying at altitudes of about 1,000 feet, DeWing said.