Millions Of Invasive Insects To Be Dumped On California City

Millions of Mediterranean fruit flies are scheduled to be dumped on Los Angeles over the next six months in an effort to stop the invasive species from destroying the state's billion-dollar agricultural industry. According to SF Gate, the California Department of Food and Agriculture quarantined "69 square miles of Los Angeles County" earlier this month after wild Mediterranean fruit flies were found at a residence in Leimert Park. A detailed map shared by the department shows the exact parameters of the quarantine to include popular locations such as Inglewood, Culver City, and Hyde Park, to name a few.

Female Mediterranean fruit flies are known to lay eggs inside 300 different fruit and vegetable varieties scattered across the state. The maggot offspring infiltrate the crop and rot it from the inside out.

So, how exactly will dropping millions of these invasive insects into the air over Los Angeles County deplete their population? CDFA spokesperson Jay Van Rein told SF GATE that this operation, with origins dating back to 1996, is a tried and true method of birth control. The flies, dumped into the sky via airplanes, are sterile males injected with purple dye.

“Matings between these sterile males and any wild female flies result in the production of infertile eggs,” and thus, an end to the wild Mediterranean fruit fly population in California.

Until the unwanted population is totally eradicated, the department plans to drop 250,000 sterile male fruit flies over Los Angeles County (specifically within a 9-mile radius of where the wild female flies were found earlier this month) each week. The process could take up to six months.