Rosalie Freeman, an AsureQuality field officer, checks a backyard fruit fly trap in Papatoetoe, 4 January 2025. Photo: Supplied / MPI
Legal controls have now been imposed on the movement of fruit and vegetables in Papatoetoe, Auckland, where an Oriental fruit fly was found yesterday.
Biosecurity New Zealand says no whole fresh fruit or vegetables can be moved outside a 200-metre radius of a location in Gray Avenue, regardless of whether it was bought or grown.
Similarly, all fruit and vegetables grown within a 1.5km radius of the location cannot be moved outside the area.
See map of the affected zone:
"These legal controls are an important precaution while we investigate whether there are any further fruit flies present in the area," Biosecurity New Zealand commissioner Mike Inglis said.
"Should there be any more flies out there, this will help prevent their spread out of the area."
There are exceptions, he said.
"The exceptions are leafy or soil-free vegetables, and if anything is cooked, processed, preserved, frozen or canned food, that can be moved out."
It is likely restrictions will be in place for at least two weeks, Inglis said.
A biosecurity operation is underway after a single male Oriental fruit fly was found in a surveillance trap in Papatoetoe. Photo: Supplied / MPI
The department is ramping up trapping and testing after a single male Oriental fruit fly was found yesterday in a surveillance trap in Papatoetoe.
The insect is considered one of the most "destructive and widespread" of all fruit flies, and can jeopardise the country's produce exports if found in New Zealand.
Inglis said that so far no other fly had been found in any of the other 187 traps in the Papatoetoe/Mangere area.
Inglis said officers may ask to check people's fruit trees but they won't come onto properties without permission.
"We don't want to impact people more than we wish to, but it's really important that we deal with this, we respond and we eradicate that as soon as we possibly can."
Biosecurity staff members would do daily checks in one zone and daily testing in another zone, he said.
Biosecurity New Zealand officer Gladwin Joseph drops information on Oriental fruit fly into a letterbox in the Papatoetoe area. Photo: Supplied / MPI
"If you do have any concerns or you find a fruit fly, there will be messages going out in the media with pictures ... if you can catch it that's good and then just contact the line or speak to my staff who will be in the area across the next at least 48 to 72 hours."
He also called for people in Papatoetoe not to take any whole fresh fruit and vegetables out of their property.
"We just want to make sure that we do this correctly... We're just urging the community not to be taking any fresh fruit or vegetables out of the Papatoetoe area at this stage," Inglis said.
So far there was no evidence of a breeding population in Aotearoa, he said.
"There have been 12 previous fruit fly incursions in New Zealand, which we have successfully eradicated so we have a very strong and detailed operational plans to guide our work."
A close-up of a fruit fly trap. Photo: Supplied / MPI
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