Horticulture New Zealand has today moved to play down fears of a biosecurity disaster after a Queensland fruit fly was found in Auckland, despite receiving "volatile'' phone calls from panicked growers.
Biosecurity inspectors are this morning scouring the suburbs of Mt Roskill and Avondale for signs of any more of the pest, which is seen as the biggest threat to the $3.5 billion fruit and vegetable export industry.
They are setting traps in residents' backyards inside a 1.5km zone and issuing households with notices telling them to put their fresh fruit and vegetables in airtight containers.
The male Queensland fruit fly was found in a surveillance trap on Tuesday.
Ministry spokesman Andrew Coleman said no areas would be cordoned off today, but restricted-place notices would be put up barring people from taking fresh fruit and vegetables outside the restricted areas.
And although Horticulture New Zealand says the pest is the industry equivalent of the threat posed by foot-and-mouth to the agricultural sector, there is no need for growers to panic.
"Growers have been ringing,'' says president Andrew Fenton. "They are constantly worried about it and can be pretty volatile on this sort of issue and who can blame them?
"They are very concerned. I'm currently waiting for a picking crew to arrive at my orchard right as we speak, and they'll be asking what we're doing today, and I will answer that we carry on as normal.
"We have to keep it in perspective, and take a responsible and measured attitude towards it. It's a little blip.''
The fly, also known as Q'fly, is considered Australia's most serious insect pest of fruit and vegetable crops.
It infests more than 100 species of fruit, including commercial crops such as avocado, citrus, feijoa, grape, peppers, persimmon, pipfruit, and stonefruit.
Eggs are laid beneath the skin of host fruit, which hatch in two to three days and the larvae feed for a further 10 to 31 days.
Up to 70 flies have been reported as developing from a single fruit.
Mr Fenton said there has been 53 similar incidents since 2006 and the problem has never escalated.
But he accepted it was raising special concern for growers this time round because of how late it has occurred in the autumn _ the middle of harvest season.
"It has come at the worst time for the industry because we're harvesting.
"The Queensland fruit fly is potentially our biggest horticultural threat because a lot of the countries we export to don't have Queensland fruit fly, and they don't want it, just as we don't.
"But, again, we have to keep things in perspective. They only found one fly, were onto it really early, and it's only a male _ he can't do much on his own.
"The potential is very serious, but it's nowhere near that at this stage.''
Mr Fenton said the Ministry of Primary Industries were "doing all the right things'' and expected today's searches to come up empty.
