#SEC

LSU Over Auburn

Georgia Over South Carolina

Alabama Over Ole Miss

#AgriculturalEmergency

U.S. Department of Agriculture, has been aggressively working to eradicate this pest. Efforts include:

Assisting industry with the requirements of their compliance agreements;

Quarantining an 85-square-mile area around the core areas where detections have been made in order to prevent the spread of the fly;

Treating a 1.5-square-mile area around each fly detection. This treatment, which is conducted by the department, consists of attracting male flies to bait which consists of an attractant, an insecticide, and a thickening agent. The flies are killed when they feed on the bait. The bait mixture is applied weekly to upper portions of telephone and utility poles. The application will continue for at least two life cycles of the fly after each find, which is approximately 60 days;

Removal of fruit from host trees — while leaving the trees — within 200 meters of a larval or mature female fruit fly find; and

Ground spraying with GF120, a pesticide certified for use in organic farming. Spinosad (GF-120  NF  NaturalyteTM   Fruit  Fly  Bait) is an insecticide that is extracted from the naturally occurring soil microbe, Saccharopolyspora spinosa. Spinosad is in common use by organic growers and was granted a “Green Chemistry” award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which classifies it as “reduced risk” because of its good environmental profile.