Adam H. Putnam, Commissioner - Richard D. Gaskalla, Director

OFF Homeowner Information

Gary J. Steck, Gary.Steck@freshfromflorida.com, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry

ENPP Home

Oriental Fruit Fly Info

Oriental Fruit Fly Prevention for Fruit Tree Owners

  • Pick up fallen fruit regularly and as often as possible during an outbreak.
  • Double bag fallen fruit and put with household trash. Limit bags to less than 50 lbs.
  • Have your lawn maintenance personnel include this procedure in their regular schedule but leave bagged fruit on property for garbage pickup.
  • Do not compost fruit.
  • Do not give, sell or transport fruit during Oriental fruit fly outbreak.
  • Contact any neighbors who have vacant or rental property with fruit trees and inform them of the necessity of these guidelines.

HOME-GROWN FRUIT: Keep It Or Can It! - No current quarantine areas

If you are in a oriental fruit fly quarantine area, you should keep homegrown fruits and vegetables on your property. This pest, if established, would reduce quality and increase costs and pesticide use for over 140 fruits and vegetables. Even tasty looking produce can be full of oriental fruit fly maggots that quickly hatch into adult oriental fruit flies. By taking fruit out of the quarantine area, you run the risk of spreading oriental fruit fly - making it more costly and time consuming to get rid of this dangerous pest. Everyone's cooperation is needed to wipe out oriental fruit fly.

Oriental Fruit Fly Life Cycle

The life cycle of the oriental fruit fly is composed of the following:
1. Adult oriental fruit fly deposits eggs under fruit skin.
2. Larvae feed on fruit pulp before dropping to ground...
3....where they convert to pupae, in which new fly develops.
4. Adult oriental fruit fly emerge from pupae.

Please keep backyard fruits and vegetables at home. Oranges, grapefruit, lemons, tomatoes, peppers, avocados, mangoes, figs, pears, guavas, lychees and persimmons are just some of the quarantined items. When you do share fruits or vegetables with friends and neighbors, make sure they're canned, baked, frozen or preserved. Never take fresh produce off your property. In case you have excess fruit, please pick it, put it in a tied double plastic bag and leave it for trash pickup. It is a violation of state law to remove uncertified fruit from the quarantined area.

Remember, oriental fruit fly eradication depends on all of us. Thank you for your cooperation in the Oriental Fruit Fly Eradication Project.

Photography credit: Jack Kelly Clark, University of California Cooperative Extension.

Back to Top

Date revised: June 22, 2000