New Pest In Town

There’s a new “kid” in town and he’s turning out to be very unpopular indeed, and with good reason. The newcomer is actually a newly discovered type of pest attacking fruit crops up and down the west coast. Its technical name is long and rather a tongue twister so I’ll refer to it with its more common name, vinegar fly. This tiny sized critter has decided to take up residence in orchards around the Northwest, California, and Hawaii, and up into Canada. Determined to be originally from Japan this little vinegar fly could turn out to be the worst pest to invade U.S. fruit crops in decades. Unlike most flies that chow down on rotting fruit, the vinegar fly focuses on ripening fruit, causing extensive damage to fruit just before it’s to be harvested. So far the USDA has decided not to initiate quarantine action against this pest because of its widespread infestation; translation: to do so would be rather like closing the barn doors after the horse has gotten out. But one has to wonder if the barn has to completely burn down before they put out this fire.