ValPal --> it's far bigger threat than wiping out just local orchards. Bad pests can wipe out the entire STATE's agricultural industry.
Also, it's not just blights and plant diseases. Lots of trees have insect eggs on the leaves and they could lead to an explosion of hugely damaging insects. I remember having the helicopters fly over my Palo Alto home in 1981 spraying the entire town with malathion over many nights (weeks?)
In that year, the insect more commonly known as the “medfly” nearly crippled California’s agricultural industry, wrecked Jerry Brown’s Senate chances and led to a media frenzy that convinced many in Palo Alto that their homes would soon be sprayed from above with toxic DDT.So, before the industry could be severely damaged by the pest, the customer base evaporated.California’s medfly morass began on June 5th, 1980 when two medflies were found in a trap in San Jose. Medflies (not native to the U.S.) are among the peskiest of all Earth’s bugs. By laying their eggs under the skin of a wide variety of popular fruits, medfly larvae are born inside the fruit, become maggots and destroy it. Agriculturalists were quick to point out that a medfly outbreak was capable of completely ravaging the state’s 14 billion dollar agricultural industry and the California economy as a whole. As the medfly began to be found in increasingly wide circles, California decided to wage war on the intruding insect.
...the rest of the country began to see there was something amiss in the Golden State. Florida, Texas, Georgia and even Japan imposed quarantines on California crops, not wishing to acquire their own medfly populations.
Buying your fruit trees at a reputable local nursery is a small thing to do to keep fruit, nut and ag healthy in California.
MedFly below...
