09/09/05 Expand apple maggot testing

Now the first thing that Brad White of the Washington State Department of Agriculture will tell you is that just because his agency has announced expansion of apple maggot testing within an area of orchard near Pasco doesn't mean a full fledge infestation. WHITE: We have not detected larvae or pupae in the Pasco area. What we've done is picked up an adult fly which tells us that there is an incursion of apple maggot into Pasco but it doesn't indicate to us that there's a reproducing population. And while in White's opinion there is no undue concern, a single adult fly did prompt the expanded testing. He explains that even though apple maggot quarantine areas have been implemented in both Kittitas and Yakima counties to the west, this finding near Pasco does not mean there is an eastward expansion of the pest. WHITE: The type of trap information that we've seen in Pasco is where you have I guess you'd call it a leaf frog where you have one or two flies show up way out of the established population is. And that doesn't really bother us because the pest boards are able to get on top of that sort of a situation and treat right away and then prevent that single incursion from becoming established. And as White emphasizes, the expanded test is a ways off from declaring a full fledged apple maggot quarantine in the area. Instead the approach will be continued testing and monitoring of the area over the course of the next year.