Medfly Found in Brea; Spraying Is Scheduled : Infestation: ‘The situation is grave,’ says the state’s leading entomologist. Spraying will be the first in Orange County history. Multiple applications are likely.

A pregnant Mediterranean fruit fly was discovered Monday morning in Brea, triggering a scramble that, within a few hours, led the governor to approve the first aerial pesticide spraying in Orange County.

State and local agriculture officials worried that the discovery in Brea was evidence that the recent Medfly infestation in Los Angeles--its worst ever--has crossed the county line, and prompted the state’s leading entomologist to describe the escalating outbreak as “grave.”

The spraying in Orange County is tentatively scheduled late next week--possibly Nov. 30--in a radius of about 10 miles from the intersection of Puente Street and Central Avenue, where Orange County officials found the female Medfly in a back-yard guava tree.

The pesticide, which state scientists insist poses no health risk, actually comes down in a light drizzle, mixed with a sticky corn syrup that attracts the flies.

With the Brea spraying, a total of 132 square miles of largely residential neighborhoods have been brought into the Medfly spray zone since August. Officials said that because of the extraordinary number of Medfly outbreaks in Los Angeles, the Orange County find and any other new ones likely will require multiple aerial sprayings.

An acute shortage of sterile Medflies, which are released by the billions to breed the fertile population out of existence, has left no alternative but increased pesticide spraying to battle the infestation, officials said.

“The situation is grave,” said Roy Cunningham, the leading entomologist on the state’s Medfly scientific advisory panel. “We are nearing the point where we have to consider alternatives. . . . Nobody wants more spraying, but we have to face the fact that this is our fallback.”

Monday’s discovery was only the second time that agriculture officials have found a Medfly in Orange County, said Frank Parsons, chief deputy agricultural commissioner.

This latest extension of what appears to be a crescent-shaped infestation through the San Gabriel Valley and beyond came as Los Angeles officials prepared to apply pesticide over a 12-square-mile section of North Hollywood, at the western extreme of the infestation. Parts of the San Gabriel Valley and East Los Angeles are awaiting a second application of pesticide Nov. 28 and 29. No other repeated sprays have been announced.

Officials originally maintained that the infestation actually consisted of several isolated outbreaks, but in recent weeks most have become convinced that they are battling a single, large infestation.

So far, state and county officials have sought to limit spraying to a single--and most recently, double--application of the pesticide malathion. During the 1981-82 statewide infestations, as many as six applications over neighborhoods were common.

Despite some residents’ complaints about the safety of the spraying and the sticky brown mess it leaves, the comments from state and local officials Monday were swift and unequivocal.

“When you balance the hardship of washing your car and saving a multimillion-dollar agricultural industry, it’s a small price to pay,” Brea City Councilman Ron Isles said.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose district includes Brea, added: “I think it’s imperative to deal with this in a swift and decisive manner so we keep the area that needs to be sprayed to a small and definable area. . . . I have not heard any resistance.”

And state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), a candidate for lieutenant governor, said he does not “look forward to being sprayed on. . . . But I think we need to do the safe thing and that is spray as soon as possible.”

Orange County Agricultural Commissioner James D. Harnett said aerial spraying of the 10-mile zone straddling the Los Angeles-Orange County line is set for Nov. 30, adding that an additional treatment “might be called for if there is a delay in receiving (sterile Medflies).”

Orange County agriculture officials discovered the female Medfly in Brea Monday morning in the back yard of a resident who asked not to be identified. That touched off a process involving consultation with the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the state’s Medfly scientific advisory panel. By 4 p.m., a proclamation approving the spraying was signed by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Kevin Brett, spokesman for the governor, said the swift response Monday was a reflection of the political lessons learned from former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s decision in 1981 to delay malathion spraying, causing a small Medfly infestation to grow into a statewide outbreak and damage Brown’s career.

“We don’t need to be told how dangerous the Medfly is,” Brett said. “One only has to remember 1981 to remember the lesson of what happens when you hesitate.”

Brett said the governor’s proclamation allows state authorities to spray in Orange County wherever and whenever they deem necessary.

The Brea fly, detected one mile from the Los Angeles County border, sent the first shudder of alarm through at least one grower representative. Thus far, farmers have voiced only mild concern over the seven urban Los Angeles infestations.

Barbara Buck, spokeswoman for Western Growers Assn., a statewide group based in Irvine, called the Brea infestation “a serious find” in light of Orange County’s $225-million-a-year citrus and nursery industry, ranked 18th in the state.

“It is a tremendous threat to our industry,” Buck said. “We’re sensitive to public concern, but the Medfly does need to be eradicated.”

In Brea, several residents interviewed near the site of the discovery said they were not worried.

“It has to be done,” said Mary Ann Lapham. “If we let them go on then it would get worse.”

“If it will eliminate them, fine,” said Alex Candora, 47, a sales clerk at Holiday House Liquors. ‘It has helped in other areas before.”

And Collette Bell, 21, said she was “more scared of the fruit fly” than the spraying. “I don’t like bugs,” she said.

Even some Orange County environmentalists said they considered the spraying necessary.

“I am an environmentalist, but I’m a practical environmentalist,” said Norman Z. Eckenrode, mayor pro tem of Placentia. “We have to control whatever is attacking our fruit.”

But Jean Watt, head of Stop Polluting Our Newport, said: “As an environmentalist, I’m really appalled at spraying homes. I am totally against it in a residential area. I can’t help but think there will be problems.”

The Medfly lays its eggs in more that 250 varieties of produce, rendering it unfit to market. So far, the infestation has been confined to urban areas in Los Angeles and Orange counties. But officials said a spread to the Central and Northern valleys could devastate the state’s $16.2-billion agricultural industry.

The prospect of widespread spraying comes at a time of mounting citizen irritation in Los Angeles County. The nighttime aerial dousing has forced residents to cover their cars and bring pets inside. The most cautious wash down outdoor furniture, patios and toys. Monday, a small group of environmentalists planned to stage a street corner protest on the West Side.

Staff writers Ted Johnson and Rose Ellen O’Connor in Orange County and Richard Simon in Los Angeles also contributed to this story.

ORANGE COUNTY FRUIT FLY INFESTATION

MEDFLY FACT AND FIGURES

Slightly smaller than a housefly; wings have brown, yellow, black and white markings.

Threatens many California crops including apricot, avocado, grapefruit, nectarine, orange, peach and cherry.

The female lays eggs in groups of one to six eggs within the fruit. The larvae tunnel inside, feeding on the pulp, and emerge through exit holes in seven to 24 days, leaving the fruit unfit for human consumption.

The average life span of the adult is about 30 days. Breeding is continuous, with several annual generations.

The permanent presence of the Medfly could result in yearly losses of more than $205 million in crop damages, additional pesticide use and quarantine requirements in the state.

ERADICATION METHODS

Spraying fruits with pesticides, such as malathion, during the egg-laying season.

Destroying infested fruit.

Control by other parasites.

Introducing sterile Medflies into the fertile population.

Sources: Los Angeles Agricultural Commissioner; Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Compiled by Times researcher Tracy Thomas.