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• Mediterranean Fruit Fly Pest Profile
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Fruit Fly Shipments and Pupae Laboratories

The Mediterranean Fruit Fly Exclusion Program receives shipments of Medfly pupae from three separate facilities. The USDA laboratory and the CDFA laboratory, both located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and a USDA laboratory located in Guatemala. The pupae are sterilized with 15 Krad, 150 Gray, and dyed with a fluorescent pink or orange color prior to shipment to the Mediterranean Fruit Fly Exclusion Program facility. In order to prevent premature emergence, the pupae are shipped in state of hypoxia and are packaged in boxes containing ice packs in order to maintain a temperature between 62-66 degrees Fahrenheit.

The three laboratories ship pupae to the Mediterranean Fruit Fly Exclusion Program daily. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly Exclusion Program is a seven day a week operation year round, with the exception of Federal holidays when the airfield is closed. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly Exclusion Program receives approximately 500 million pupae per week, or approximately 72 million pupae each day.

As shown in photo, irradiated pupae are shipped in plastic bags, commonly referred to as "sausages," that are equipped with an inlaid dosimeter tag from the laboratory of origin. One box of pupae contains over two million pupae, and each box contains nine sausages. The are approximately 223,000 pupae in each sausage.

Mediterranean Fruit Fly Exclusion Program personnel pick up the pupae shipments at the Los Angeles International Airport daily and return the pupae to our facility in Los Alamitos, where we incubate the pupae into the adult stage for aerial release over a 2,155 square mile area of the L.A. basin.

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