Greater access leads to greater results

The Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) is continuing to see lower numbers of Queensland fruit fly detections in the Riverland, with no detections recorded in 24 of the 58 outbreak areas over the past 12 weeks.

With activity largely concentrated in and around Renmark, Monash and Barmera, PIRSA is urging businesses, residents and travellers to stay vigilant. As citrus season begins, everyone is encouraged to take simple precautions to help prevent the spread of fruit fly.

General Manager of the Fruit Fly Response, Jason Size, emphasised the importance of fruit fly field officers implementing critical controls.

“Our officers play a huge role in our response to fruit fly outbreaks,” Mr Size said.

“When implementing controls in an outbreak area, they sometimes encounter resistive property owners, which makes it hard for us to fully access and assess an outbreak area.”

Currently, there are a number of properties in the Riverland restricting PIRSA access, making it harder for controls to be effectively implemented, such as applying bait, deploying traps, removing at-risk fruit and vegetables, and checking for the presence of fruit fly.

Under the Plant Health Act 2009, PIRSA has a legislated responsibility and authority to access properties to assess and administer appropriate levels of fruit fly controls.

As part of the response to fruit fly in the Riverland, PIRSA will be implementing the SIT (Sterile Insect Technique) program throughout May and into June. SIT which works by releasing sterile fruit flies that outnumber and mate with wild flies but produce no offspring, effectively breaking the fruit fly life cycle.

“Our goal is to eradicate fruit fly from the Riverland, which is a vision we should all share.” Mr Size added.

For more information about fruit fly, or the latest outbreak advice, visit fruit fly or call the 24-Hour Fruit Fly Hotline on 1300 666 010.