07/06/06 Expanding Quarantine Are

Fruit growers in Yakima County have taken notice of an expansion in the apple maggot quarantine area. The Washington State Department of Agriculture has recently expanded the quarantine area to cover the northeast quadrant of Yakima County. The apple maggot was first detected in Washington in 1980 in Clark County. It soon spread through western Washington and is now found in 22 of Washington`s 39 counties, including three in eastern Washington. It attacks cherry, pear, plum, apricot, and crabapple, as well as apple. According to Dave Carlson with the Washington Apple Commission, one government agency was inadvertently contributing to the problem. CARSLON: For quite a while the Fish and Game Department was actually planting these trees in stream areas to enhance the fish habitat and at the same time it was making the problem worse. It seems apple maggot also like taking up residence in non-fruit bearing Hawthorne trees. Growers are allowed to ship commercial apples from the quarantined area as long as the WSDA can certify either that no apple maggot flies were trapped within a half-mile of the orchard, or that inspections reveal no apple maggot larvae in the fruit even if flies were caught within half a mile of the orchard. No apple maggot larvae have ever been detected in commercially packed fruit in Washington. The spread is mainly by people transporting apples from infested backyard apple trees to non-infested areas of the state, although abandoned orchards can also lead to its spread. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.