Whangarei's latest Queensland fruit fly scare could be declared over on Easter Sunday with no more of the pests found since a single male was found in a trap in the Parihaka area on April 1.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) started its second fruit fly biosecurity operation so far this year the following day and as of today (Friday) no new fruit flies had been found.
MPI Chief Operating Officer Andrew Coleman said if no further Queensland fruit flies are found in Whangarei he will announce an end to its response in the area tomorrow morning.
The Queensland fruit fly is a significant pest of many horticultural crops and home gardens and threatens New Zealand's $4 billion horticulture industry and MPI set up a Controlled Area extending out 1.5km from the location of the find where people were asked not to move any whole fruit or certain vegetables out of the area. This was in case further flies were present, and designed to prevent spread of the pest out of the area, Mr Coleman said.
He said all MPI's field work - the trapping, checking of fallen fruit and home orchards and the Controlled Area - are set out in an internationally-accepted Response Standard, which require that the response traps and movement controls on produce must be in place for a full 14 days with no fruit fly detections.