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After discovery of three Mediterranean fruit flies, or medflies, in October, Los Angeles County officials dropped millions of sterile flies on a 9-square-mile area around Baldwin Hills to prevent an outbreak.—Terry Castleman, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2024 In 1980, state and federal agencies mounted an eradication operation after an outbreak of medflies in the Santa Clara Valley southeast of San Francisco.—Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023 The aerial drops alone would not be enough to eradicate fruit flies, said UC Davis entomology professor James Carey, who has studied medflies since 1980 and was on the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s medfly scientific advisory panel from 1987 to 1994.—Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023 California has been battling medfly infestations for decades.—Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Nov. 2023 The operation was kicked off after the discovery of three Mediterranean fruit flies, or medflies, last month.—Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2023
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