medflies in Tampa

[Anne Kilmer]

The USDA is spraying malathion in Tampa to combat a medfly infestation. 
Tampa people are resisting them every step of the way, it seems. 
(They're having really bad press.)
USDA folks assure me that their malathion approach is no worse than what 
mosquito control is doing every day. (Except for the sticky stuff on 
cars part, because this is bait.) 
According to our local paper, they now also plan to strip the trees in 
infested areas and take the fruit to "landfills and dumps". I continue 
to worry, as I'm afraid medflies will emerge from this fruit in the 
landfills and flap off to find fruit trees. I know they're not strong 
fliers ... 
maybe the fruit is being well buried, or will be incinerated.
And I imagine a Norman Rockwell world, where when the fruit trees are 
stripped, the mangoes and such are carted by big kids and men to school 
cafeterias and church kitchens, peeled and pitted by happy little 
children and their mothers and grannies, gallons of jam and preserves 
and green mango chutney and acres of cobblers and  pies. And the peels 
blanched in boiling water and then composted. 
Of course they've just been sprayed with malathion, haven't they. How 
long do you have to wait before you use such fruit? Or can you just wash 
it and use it? 
Anyway, I bet Tampa people would love to rise to the occasion in this 
way. It would make a festival out of what is now a tragedy, and it would 
celebrate the human spirit at a time when that is needed. 
Tqmpa people, what are you doing about the butterfly count? I hope you 
don't cancel because of lack of bugs ... this data would be 
extraordinarily interesting to all of us, I think. And you could glean a 
lot of nice publicity out of the event. 
Mike Thomas, USDA's man on the scene, points out that the medflies got 
to Tampa in the luggage of travelers who brought in fruit from South 
America (Ooh, I just want Aunt Jane to taste a real mango). He says a 
sweep at a West Coast airport a few years ago found countless medflies 
in fruit that ordinary tourists had brought in. 
Now that we're all good little composters, of course we put the peels 
and spoiled fruit in the compost, don't we. And there we are.
The USDA also plans to set out a lot more traps, statewide. I suggest 
that they put one in every Master Gardener's garden (I promise they'd be 
checked every day) and give one to every farmer and grower that requests 
one. We Americans function better when we call the shots; why not let us 
all watch for these bugs? 
Anne Kilmer
14224 lake Bass Drive
Lake Worth, FL 33461
561 585-1935
Oh, before you all throw rotten mangoes at me (quite rightly), the 
Norman Rockwell picture was wildly sexist. In today's delightful world, 
there'll be plenty of guys in the kitchens and ladies in the fields. 
Banged up as I am, I'd be out there in the sun. Bossing a crew. 
(Pointing, as my friend Dave disparagingly describes it.)
Fourth of July tomorrow and all, it's a nice time to be patriotic. We 
are the government. Let's get out there and be it.