Take a stroll through Orange County neighborhoods and you’re likely to see street light poles with a mysterious black substance.
The first recorded Southern California oriental fruit fly (OFF) detections were in 1960. California Department of Food and Agriculture (CFDA) officials have detected the invasive species in several Orange County cities over the intervening years, prompting treatment measures to eliminate the pests’ threat to California’s environment, agriculture and economy.
OFFs are known to attack over 230 types of at-risk fruits and vegetables such as pome and stone fruits, citrus, dates, avocados, tomatoes and peppers by laying eggs that hatch into larvae and feed on the produce, making it unfit for consumption…