“Good progress” is being made as the response to discovering a single Oriental fruit fly in Auckland’s Papatoetoe ramps up, Biosecurity New Zealand said in a statement this afternoon.
Restrictions were implemented on Friday after the male fly was discovered in a surveillance trap in a suburban backyard.
Biosecurity NZ commissioner Mike Inglis said the team had continued to ramp up response efforts to ensure no other fruit flies around.
These included an extra 105 traps within 1500m of the discovery, stepped-up checks, the delivery of special bins of fruit and vegetable waste disposal and the establishment of a mobile lab to examine for fruit fly larvae and eggs.
“The mobile lab work and checking of fruit helps to provide us with an extra layer of certainty that there are no other fruit flies out there.”
Legal controls were introduced yesterday to prohibit the movement of fruit and vegetables out of a specified controlled area. A detailed map of the controlled area and descriptions of the boundaries and rules in place can be found here.
It is made up of two zones:
- Zone A has a 200m perimeter with 198 properties. No whole fresh fruit and vegetables – excluding leafy vegetables and soil-free root vegetables – can be moved outside Zone A. Compost and green waste from gardens also cannot be moved out of this zone.
- Zone B covers a 1500m area and is made up of 5470 properties. All fruit and vegetables grown within Zone B cannot be moved out of the controlled area. No fruit and vegetables grown in Zone B can be moved out of the controlled area. Residents in Zone B are free to move commercially purchased fruit and vegetables, such as from a supermarket, out of the area.
Residents in these two zones should put their fruit and vegetable waste into supplied special response bins to be disposed of securely by Biosecurity NZ, said Inglis.
Every household in Zone A will have a fruit and vegetable disposal bin, and in Zone B, there will be about 34 bins placed around the edge of the zone, primarily on major transport routes and a further 75 placed within the Zone.
“The bins in Zone A will be cleared daily initially, then as required. There will be no need to put them out on the street as they will be serviced, rebagged and insecticide applied in bag and inside lid where they are currently placed.”
Inglis thanked the community for their “positive response” to the Biosecurity NZ team so far.
“In the previous 12 occasions we’ve found fruit flies in New Zealand we’ve successfully eradicated them with the help of our horticulture sector partners and local communities, so it’s important everyone plays their part.
“At present, the restrictions will be in place for a fortnight.”