Fruit fly alert: What you need to know

Red: Zone A, Yellow: Zone B

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has placed controls on the movement of whole fresh fruit and some vegetables out of a specific area of Whangarei after a single male Queensland fruit fly was found in a surveillance trap.

MPI this morning announced that the Ministry is investigating the new find in a trap in the Parihaka area of Whangarei, approximately 400m from where a fruit fly was found in January this year.

Read more about the last biosecurity alert here

Andrew Coleman, MPI Deputy Director-General, Compliance and Response, says all information at this stage indicates that this detection is a new find and not related to the January incident.

"The Whangarei community were immensely supportive of our efforts earlier this year and we anticipate they will be again. It is, of course, disappointing that this situation has recurred."

Mr Coleman says the legal movement controls, set out in a Controlled Area Notice, are an important precaution while MPI investigates whether there are any further fruit flies present in the area.

"Should there be any as yet undetected flies out there, this will help prevent their spread out of the area."

The Queensland fruit fly is an unwanted and notifiable insect that could have serious consequences for our horticultural industries and home gardens.

The Controlled Area Notice is in force for a 1.5km circular area around the location of the find, taking in parts of Parihaka, Riverside and central Whangarei.

This description is approximate and detailed maps of the controlled area, a full description of the boundaries and full information about the rules are at: www.mpi.govt.nz

Whole fresh fruit and vegetables (except for leafy vegetables and root veges) cannot be moved outside of the Controlled Area.

Within the wider Controlled Area there is a smaller central Zone A (which takes in a circle 200 metres out from the initial find), and whole fruit and vegetables cannot be moved outside of this Zone at all. Fruit and vegetables can continue to be transported from outside the Controlled Area into the Controlled Area.

Red: Zone A, Yellow: Zone B

Read the controlled area notice here.

Key fruits, vegetables and plants of concern are:
All citrus fruits, all stonefruit, pears, apples, blackberry, boysenberry, grapes, feijoa, passionfruit, tomato, eggplant, capsicum, pumpkin, avocado, custard apple, quince, persimmon, loquat, olives, oleander, kumquat, crab-apple, cape gooseberry and guava.

Residents are asked to avoid composting any of these risk fruits and vegetables.

For disposing of fruit and vegetable waste, they are encouraged to use a sink waste disposal unit if possible. MPI is providing special bins in the Controlled Area for the disposal of fruit and vegetable waste. The locations of these bins will be advised shortly.

"We appreciate this will be inconvenient for the many people living in and around the Controlled Area, but compliance with these restrictions is a critical precaution to protect our horticultural industries and home gardens," Mr Coleman says.

"It is expected the restrictions will be in place for at least a couple of weeks."

MPI and its partners have deployed investigators in the affected area. They will be laying traps and checking fruit trees, vegetable gardens and rubbish bins for any signs of fruit flies.

"It is vital that we ascertain if the insect is a solitary find or if there is a wider population in Northland which would need to be treated," Mr Coleman says.

If further fruit flies are found, the Ministry says there will not be aerial spraying of insecticides as there are other more effective treatment methods available.

Full information will be regularly updated on www.mpi.govt.nz.

For further information or to report any suspicious finds, call MPI on 0800 80 99 66.

MPI has a list of frequently asked questions here.