Fruit fly war: Life goes on around bug hunt

Grey Lynn resident Elke Chilwell setting traps in areas likely to harbour Queensland fruit fly. Photo / Dean Purcell

An intensive biosecurity operation is in progress in the backyards of hundreds of Auckland residents, but residents of Grey Lynn are continuing their lives as usual.

The Ministry for Primary Industries had 126 staff and contractors in the controlled area yesterday to talk to residents, lay bait and set and check traps for the potentially devastating Queensland fruit fly.

The biosecurity staff and the ministry's yellow fruit disposal bins stand out in the inner-city suburb.

Elke Chilwell lives in Prime Rd, Grey Lynn, which is in Zone B of the controlled area - the wider area surrounding Zone A, where the Queensland fruit fly was found and tighter controls are in place.

She has several fruit trees on her property, and on Friday morning, two days after the initial find, MPI staff put a trap on her fig tree.

"It's been checked every day since," she said.

She praised the MPI workers who have been coming to her property.

"They've been really lovely about it. Every day we have been getting more information as the thing progresses."

A neighbour of Ms Chilwell's has tomato and strawberry plants that were inspected yesterday, but no traps were needed on the plants.

William Parsons lives in a flat on a neighbouring street and said he had his first visit from MPI yesterday.

The property doesn't have any fruit trees, so the MPI staff gave him a pamphlet and made sure he knew about the yellow bins set up in the controlled area for disposal of all fruit and vegetables.

"I work from home so it's not a big deal for me, but my flatmates eat a lot of fruit and were talking about how they couldn't take their fruit to work," Mr Parsons said.

While most of the residents spoken to in the area said they felt they had all the information they needed on the issue, one resident contacted NZME. News Service by email to say he learned about restrictions in the area after reading the newspaper and checking the map.

Bins for residents to deposit fruit and vegetable scraps are dotted around in Zone B, and MPI says it is collecting 1300kg of produce waste from the bins every day.