What is it about?
This article reviews the evidence and concludes that fruit flies may be caught in traps periodically but are unlikely to be self sustaining in California.
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Why is it important?
This affects international trade as the insects are invasive.
Perspectives
The team who wrote this article was attacked in the same magazine by an academic at Berkeley who failed to address the scientific evidence, so we had to write a second article with almost the same title ! ("To Repeat:..)
Professor David Maxwell Suckling
University of Auckland
Kudos to the team of authors made up of fruit fly practioners with decades of experience combatting destructive tephritid insect pests, set forth arguments based on sound science refuting assertions that invasive fruit flies are now established in California. To believe otherwise is to ignore evidence of an extremely high approach rate, the high intrinsic rate of increase by these pests under favorable conditions, and the effectiveness of the tools and technologies that have been developed, tested, and employed to detect, delimit, contain, and eradicate such pests! California and other states continue to produce high quality fruits and vegetables for both local and export markets that meet the pest-free certification requirements of importing countries/states.
Patrick Gomes
United States Department of Agriculture
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Can Polyphagous Invasive Tephritid Pest Populations Escape Detection for Years Under Favorable Climatic and Host Conditions?, American Entomologist, January 2017, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/ae/tmx038.
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