90 PLANT QUARANTINE AND CONTROL ADMINISTRATION [April-June, 
Cleaning Refrigerator Cars Under Mediterranean Fruit Fly Quarantine 
P. Q. C. A.— 226 May 8, 1929 
Dear Sirs : You have doubtless been advised through press reports that the 
Mediterranean fruit fly, probably the most serious of fruit-attacking insects, 
has been found over a considerable area in the vicinity of Orlando, Fla. It is 
now apparent that infested fruit from this area has been distributed not only 
by truck and bulk shipments but probably also with packed fruit shipped in 
refrigerator cars. To prevent spreading infestation to new localities, therefore, 
all such cars should be thoroughly cleaned before being placed again in fruit- 
growing districts in any part of the United States. This cleaning is for the 
purpose not only of removing any fruit remaining in the car, but of destroying 
any larvae or puparia of the fly which might be on the floor or elsewhere within 
the car. 
With respect to this situation your attention is respectfully called to regula- 
tion 7 of Notice of Quarantine No. 68, effective May 1, 1929. (See copy here- 
with.) This regulation is as follows: 
REGULATION 7. restrictions on the interstate movement of railway cars, 
BOATS, AND OTHER VEHICLES AND CONTAINERS 
Railway cars, boats, and other vehicles and containers which have been used 
in transporting any article whose movement is restricted by these regulations 
within or from a quarantined State, shall not thereafter be moved or allowed 
to be moved interstate until they have been thoroughly cleaned and. if required 
by the inspector, disinfected, by the destination carrier and/or the consignee at 
the point of unloading in manner and by method prescribed by the Plant 
Quarantine and Control Administration. 
To carry out the purpose of this regulation, your employees should be 
instructed (1) to collect all fruit, crates, and trash material from the floor 
racks, from the floor beneath, and from the tank pan below the ice grates, 
and (2) to burn all such fruit, crates, trash, and sweepings. Such cleaning 
should be done either at the point of unloading or at any designated point within 
the destination terminal. 
You are requested also to instruct employees to report, to the Plant Quarantine 
and Control Administration, Washington, D. C, the car number, and date of 
cleaning of all cars to which these restrictions apply. They should be author- 
ized to permit inspectors of the department to examine any car falling under 
the said regulation 7, either at the unloading point or, after having been un- 
loaded, at any transit point. You are further requested to send copies of 
instructions, issued on this subject to your employees, to the Plant Quaarntine 
and Control Administration. 
These cleaning requirements will apply not only to all cars used for the 
transportation of host fruits and vegetables from Florida under Federal permit 
subsequent to April 30, but also to cars which have been used for the trans- 
portation of such fruits and vegetables prior to May 1 and which may be 
now either at unloading points, or in transit to other fruit-growing areas, or 
in such areas. The damage which might result from a single infested fruit 
reaching other fruit-growing areas or from larvae or puparia of the fly 
remaining in the car and emerging as adults is so great that every precaution 
should be taken to free " empties " from risk of carrying this pest. 
The foregoing instructions apply to the cleaning of cars covered under 
regulation 7 of quarantine No. 68. Later, instructions may be issued relative 
to any required disinfection by steam or other means. 
This letter is sent in duplicate with receipt form attached. Please date 
and sign such receipt on one copy and return the receipted copy in the inclosed 
penalty envelope which requires no postage. 
Yours very truly, 
C. L. Marlatt, 
Chief, Plant Quarantine and Control Administration. 
Received above communication and copy of Notice of Quarantine referred 
to therein this day of 1929. 
(Name) 
(Title) 
