Fruits and Veggies Saved from Invasive Fruit Flies

When two invasive fruit fly species were discovered and threatened crops in California, the United States, authorities released two million sterile male fruit flies to eradicate the winged nuisance.

Each week will see the release of 250,000 sterile male flies per 1.5 square kilometer over a 23-square-km area in Los Angeles. Grown at a military base in Los Alamitos and marked with purple dye, these flies will mate with medfly females, leading to infertile eggs and even smaller offspring that doesn’t affect crops.

If left unchecked, the Mediterranean fruit flies – or medflies for short – could infect more than 250 types of fruits and vegetables, devastating California’s billion-dollar agricultural industry. The 6 mm is native to Sub-Saharan Africa but has been found in the Mediterranean region, southern Europe, the Middle East, Western Australia, South and Central America, and Hawaii. Releasing sterile males is today’s preferred method against insect invasion, surpassing malathion spraying, which is ineffective.