94 
Psyche 
[June-September 
fruit lying around their premises. In both infested and protective 
zones, the foliage was sprayed with a bait preparation containing 
brown sugar and molasses plus a poison — lead arsenate or copper 
carbonate. 
The extent of the effort may be judged from these figures: the 
treatment extended onto 1,002 properties in 20 counties with about 
10,000,000 acres of land (containing nearly three-fourths of all the 
bearing citrus land in Florida), including 120,000 acres of citrus and 
160,000 of non-citrus crops. About 609,000 boxes of fruit were de- 
stroyed in this area, and 25,000 outside it. Fifty thousand bushels of 
host vegetables were destroyed, and about 300,000 pounds of lead 
arsenate were used in the bait spray. Infested shipments were found 
in ten localities in seven states outside Florida, owing to the fact that 
three-fourths of the citrus crop had been marketed by the time the fly 
was discovered. 
It was found that kerosene and certain fermenting materials were 
attractive to adult male flies, and glass traps containing these were 
used to check on the presence of the pest. 
By July, 1930, the medflv could no longer be trapped in the 
continental United States. Its elimination took an expenditure of 
about seven and one-half million dollars and the employment of a 
peak work force of some 6,000 men. Reimbursement of those who 
sustained losses through confiscation of fruit or other control measures 
cost another seven million dollars. The “scorched earth” policy plus 
effective quarantine and the crude bait spray had paid off; the medflv 
had been eradicated for the time being on this continent. 
The iq 56 Campaign 
The second medfly infestation began when infested grapefruit was 
found at Miami Shores in April of 1956. By June of that year, 
infestations were found in 19 Florida counties. Again, Federal and 
state forces were marshalled with admirable alacrity, but this time, 
after a brief initial period of fruit-stripping in some of the southeastern 
Florida counties, a new strategy was employed. In large part, this 
plan was devised by L. F. Steiner, US DA fruit fly expert, who had 
been working out control and detection methods for various pest fly 
species in Hawaii. Fruit-stripping was abandoned, and quarantine 
zones of one mile were established around each known infestation. 
All fruit or produce moving out of these areas had to be fumigated 
or processed immediately. New improved fumigation methods em- 
ploying methyl bromide and ethylene dibromide were found quite 
satisfactory for most fruit, and could be applied at a rate of only five 
