Fly scare hits kids' lunch boxes

FRUITLESS: Layton Anderson, 4, (far right, then from left), his cousins, Rejhaeda Ihaia, 4, Prestyn Gardner, 3, and Ahipene Langman, 2. PHOTO/HANNAH NORTON

Instead of fresh fruit and vegetables, a Whangarei mum is packing dried fruit for school lunches after being in the fruit fly hot-spot a second time around.

Riverside resident Belinda Teirney's home is once again in the 1.5-kilometre circular controlled area established by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), following the discovery of another male Queensland fruit fly on Tuesday.

The latest fruit fly was found about 400 metres from where the first was discovered in the Parihaka area of Whangarei in January.

The controls mean that whole fresh fruit and vegetables (except for leafy vegetables and root veges) cannot be moved outside the controlled area.

This time, however, Ms Teirney's Panorama Drive home is in Zone A, a smaller central zone which takes in a circle 200m out from the initial fruit fly find.

It means she can't even move whole fruit and vegetables out of that 200m radius into Zone B, the 1.5km circular controlled area.

Ms Teirney grows a variety of fruit in her garden, including nectarines, lemons and grapes, which she often puts in her two sons' lunchboxes.

Her youngest boy is 4-year-old Layton Anderson, who goes to Parihaka Kindergarten, which is also in Zone A.

Her eldest, however, 7-year-old Malakai Anderson, goes to Whangarei Primary, which is out of both Zones A and B.

This means he cannot take fresh fruit from home to school in his lunchbox. Ms Teirney has had to instead pack dried fruit.

"I ideally would like him to take fresh fruit to school. He doesn't really like dried fruit," she said.

Residents in Zone A are also asked to dispose of all fruit and vegetable waste in the special bins placed outside each house.

"You're rushing doing dinner and it's very easy to forget to separate your vege peelings," Ms Teirney said.

She said around four traps had been set up in her garden.

AsureQuality surveillance manager Kerry King said they were called Linfield traps. It is a plastic trap with four holes that include pheromones to attract the male flies.

"In the bottom of the trap we have a DDBP insecticide strip, which if the fly happens to fly into the trap, instantly knocks the fly down and kills it.

"So we can come along and inspect the trap, and any samples we find are brought to the MPI entomologist for inspection," she said.

Arna-Lise Harris said on the Northern Advocate Facebook page that she was now in Zone B, after being Zone A in January. "This time I have to take my food scraps and garden trimmings down the street every day," she said.

"Better to be safe and rid of that pest than to have our horticulture industry in absolute strife."

In January, Countdown Okara fell into the parameters of Zone B, which meant people could not purchase fruit there and travel out of the zone.

This time there are no restrictions around purchases from Countdown, nor are there any on Pak'n Save or Turners and Growers.