Oriental fruit fly, Birkdale

Why this is a problem for New Zealand

The Oriental fruit fly can affect over 300 hosts including apple, kiwifruit, citrus, and tomatoes. A population of Oriental fruit fly would cause control costs, production losses, and some countries might stop accepting our exported produce. There’s more information about the Oriental fruit fly below.

What's the situation?

The single male Oriental fruit fly was found in a surveillance trap in a suburban back yard in Birkdale, on Auckland’s North Shore.

We are putting in around 100 extra fruit fly traps within a 1500m area of the original find, we have staff on the ground, and have put a controlled area in place which restricts the movement of fruits and vegetables.

We will be ramping up trapping and testing, with daily checks in a 200-metre zone from the original find and three daily testing in a second zone out to 1500m.

Controlled Area Notice (CAN)

The Auckland suburb of Birkdale and nearby areas on the North Shore are under a Controlled Area Notice. This is effective from 21 February. This restricts the movement of certain fruits and vegetables out of the Controlled Area to help prevent the spread of any fruit flies if there are more out there.

These legal controls are an important precaution while we investigate whether there are any further fruit flies in the area. Should there be any more flies out there, this will help prevent their spread out of the area.

This area is divided into 2 zones, A and B, which have different restrictions.

Zone A is a 200 metre radius area from the original find. Zone B is a 1,500 metre radius area from original find.

Check if you are in the controlled area and which zone applies to you.

We’ll also have Biosecurity New Zealand staff in the area handing out information, as well as signage showing where the restrictions are.

Controlled Area Notice (CAN) and maps

Controlled Area Notice (CAN) [PDF, 430 KB]

Map of Zones A and B – Satellite [PDF, 15 MB]

Map of Zones A and B – Traffic [PDF, 7.3 MB]

Information on waste collections in Zone A and Zone B

If you live in Zone A

No fruit and vegetables (other than leafy or soil free root vegetables and cooked, processed, preserved, dried, frozen and canned fruit) can be moved from Zone A of the controlled area.
Compost and green waste from gardens also cannot be moved out of this zone.
Residents in Zone A are asked to avoid composting fruit and vegetables. Separate fruit and vegetable waste from the rest of your household rubbish and dispose of it using a sink waste disposal unit if you have one, or put it in the bins provided by Biosecurity New Zealand. Your general rubbish can go out with your normal rubbish collection.
Also leave any home-grown fruit or vegetables that have fallen from trees or plants (windfall) on the ground in your garden. Biosecurity New Zealand inspectors may collect this material to check it for the presence of fruit fly. Waste from home-grown fruit and vegetables that have been already chopped up and is free of any bugs can be disposed of in the Biosecurity New Zealand bin. If you find eggs or larvae in home-grown produce, tie all the fruit or vegetable material inside a plastic bag and call Biosecurity New Zealand on 0800 80 99 66.

If you live in Zone B

No fruit and vegetables grown in the Zone B can be moved out of the controlled area. You are free to move commercially purchased fruit and vegetables (e.g. fruit and vegetables bought at the supermarket) out of the area.
Home grown produce waste and garden waste needs to be disposed of in Biosecurity New Zealand bins.

If in doubt, don't take it out.

About the Oriental fruit fly

The Oriental fruit fly is widespread in Africa and Asia. In Oceania, it is present in Christmas Island, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Hawaii and Tahiti. However, it is absent from Australia.

It can affect over 300 hosts including apple, kiwifruit, citrus, and tomatoes. Adult flies lay eggs into fruit. The young stages (maggots) feed inside the fruit, causing it to rot and become unmarketable.

Adult flies:

are a little larger than a housefly (6mm to 8mm long)
have a dark "T" shaped marking on the abdomen (the part behind the waist)
usually have a bright yellow and orange abdomen (but can vary)
have clear wings
The thorax (behind the head) is dark or near black with 2 near parallel yellow thin strips running down each side of the thorax
The female fly has a pointed "sting" to lay eggs inside fruit (but she can't sting or bite people).

Larvae look like white long-grain rice.

Find out more about Oriental fruit flies