Anne Beadell Highway: fruit/vege quarantines

I hope that your comments are tongue in cheek and you actually realise how important Quarantine requirements are to agriculture in WA.

If not, please check with agric.wa.gov.au/quarantine to enlighten yourself and any others who think it's a big joke.

Disco
(who spent 22years in the agriculture protection business.)

Nicely said Disco Driver.
Get outmore, Yes I will bite - we have a lot less bugs and diseases in W.A. than you blokes in the East. Have a look at your honey it carries several viruses. Your spuds have ground born diseases, just to name a couple nearly every thing has to be heat treated /fumigated and certified bug free before it comes into our state.
It is the same as going through an area of S.A. no fruit allowed. Or do you ignore their request to dump your fruit in honour bins.
Yes we have the Mediterranean fruit fly - somebody slipped some diseased fruit through customs. Yes it is controlled but will never be eradicated.

Tony

on the subject of fruit flies, this may be of interest to some >>

Fruit Flies in WA (and elsewhere)

Scroll down & read the bit on the Queensland Fruit Fly, and you'll understand why they are not wanted in WA (or anywhere else, for that matter)

;-)

yes it was tongue in cheek and living in the west i can assure you fruit fly is not close to controlled.

Id never seen such muck grow on trees until i came to the west. every tree every fruit full of maggots

hence my reply about bringing over nice clean fruit

Hi get outmore,
And do you know why fruit fly is not close to controlled?

Because the general populace in Perth (not the country) did not like the Ag Dept fruitfly inspectors entering their back yards, inspecting their 2 or3 fruit trees and telling them what to do to control fruit fly and complained bitterly about it.

The majority of politicians, knowing that the Perth electors kept them in power rather than the fewer electors in the bush, changed the laws about fruit fly control.

Once that happened no one was compelled to do anything, and of course nothing got done.

End of story..

Disco.

Hi Disco,
You beat me to it.

get outmore - you are exaggerating there are plenty of commercial orchids with good fruit.
If you don't like it here in WA, suggest you think about going back to where you came from...

Tony

I live in SW of WA, and fight with anyone who argues against our stringent quarantine regulations.

Davoe is right, when they got slack about the fruit fly exclusion zones, the formerly free SW region became infested and has never been free since. Why don't the commercial orchards have trees riddled with fruit fly - because they cover spray with a nasty chemical - that is the only was to get fruit to ripe point around here. I have given up the work and expense of a baiting programme as fruit flies can fly for up to 8 kms, and they find my fruit again. Fruit trees we planted are a liability and a lot of work stripping and destroying the fruit.

We have lost fruit tress to a coddling moth outbreak - again could only have been from someone bringing infected fruit through the barriers. There have been apple scab outbreaks in nearby towns over the years. A lot of work and expense with often whole orchards having to be removed for scant or no compensation when the ES pests breach our borders.

Then there is soil which can carry diseases, and seeds such as burrs that our crops are clean from. Honey has already been discussed, and again, when a hive is found to be diseased, the bees and hives are all destroyed. That is someone's livelihood and livestock. These are all dangers to our agricultural economy.

Most people do the right thing, but how easy is it to forget that piece of fruit or what ever left in your lunch box, burrs on the dogs bedding or soil off the potatoes in the bottom of the pantry cupboard.

Motherhen

Keep WA clean

well thats a shame - I would love for for ag department inspectors to come round and tell me how to keep them at bay.

ve asked at varios garden stores and usually get blank stares - one mentioned putting vegemite in a coke bottle. I tried some completly innffective spray once.

If theres some highly toxic spray to use I cant find it. I expected to see whole shelf dedicated to fruit fy control as its so bad but only found 1 product (the aformentioned innefecive vegemite spray)

Get outmore the commercial product is Lebaycid. I won't use it as it is harmful to birds. Lots of different brands - that was just the first that came up in a search.

I prefer sugar to Vegemite in a bait - but that is just to attract the flies to the bait - you have to add the chemical such as Maldison. No good however if all your neighbours don't control the fly as well. I get angry too!

Fruit Fly Control

If you want to know more, email me (@ Westnet).

Motherhen

Davoe,
Ya might like to try some o' this >>

Nature's Way

:)

Hi Ed

I just looked up Spinosad which as it is a natural ingredient it is 'organic', however it is not entirely safe for our garden friends (as well as our garden enemies - the fruit fly).Spinosad

"Studies on spinosad show slight toxicity to birds, moderate toxicity to fish, and slight to moderate toxicity to aquatic invertebrates. However, it is highly toxic to bees (honey bee LC50 = 11.5 ppm) and is highly toxic to oysters and other marine mollusks. Applications to areas where bees are actively foraging should be avoided."

However used as a bait in bottles with holes too small for bees, most in the garden should remain unscathed. That is how i used to use Maldison.

BUT for Davoe in suburbia, unless all the neighbours within many kilometres are using a good control method too, the flies just keep flying back in.


Mh

On ya MH, it is about time the minority that breach the law got educated.
The Perth Zoo also had a good one. We used to use it and found it quite effective.

Remember the out break in the spuds in Spearwood, the whole area was quarantined off and I think the crops were destroyed. All though a bloke who had been tramping through a relations spud patch in Italy and didn't clean or declare the boots at the airport customs.
Believe he was fined something like $50,000.

Tony

MMMMM kills bees? believe it or not one of our environmentally worst introduced species

agriculturally important though

thanks get outmore.

If I am reading you the right way this means any fruit/veges etc are OK to bring across the border so long as we have either eaten them of if not we dispose of them in the honour bin east of Laverton?

Cheers and thanks.

PS I didn't mean to start world war three with this query. We do respect, support and understand the reasons behind quarantines. I was looking to see what options are available.

Hi Coenens

Thanks for your help.

I will post the same question to you that I have posted above to 'get outmore' if you don't mind.

If I am reading you the right way this means any fruit/veges etc are OK to bring across the border so long as we have either eaten them of if not we dispose of them in the honour bin east of Laverton?

Cheers and thanks.