The fly attack that happened in California seemed to have been confined to the said state but Kansas agricultural law which has been in effect since 1907 covered this along with other pests that could enter Kansas from nearby states. Nobody was really expecting maggot contaminated fruits to enter the vicinity of Kansas because the infestation did not happen in a commercial fruit growing area of California. We do not expect any more damage caused by the flies even if they make it to the state because by the time that happens, they would be dying.
You cannot expect that there is a single Mediterranean fruit fly that can survive the winter of Kansas. This is not the first time that the US encountered Mediterranean fruit flies infestation in California. Florida had five infestations in the past, Texas had one, and California had two successive years of the said plague. People have mixed and matched several methods to eliminate the pests and these include Malathion insecticide, nets, baits and release of sterile male insects.
There is a federal memorandum on the awareness with the United States Department of Agriculture which conveys the details for a cooperative work plan to be followed by all the states and their officials especially in dealing with such incidences. An emergency federal regulation is in effect under which increased personnel were trapping the insects and attempting eradication. The extermination design for the pests include isolation of the infested and nearby areas, releasing sterile male flies to bring the population lower and aerial poison spraying to kill the insects.
The government has a means of weighing the benefits versus the dangers of segregation if ever it will be thought as the next resort. They must prove that a method can be allowed by the economic status, that actual control is made possible by the said technique and that the spread of the insects will be halted through it. A public hearing precedes an announcement of federal or state quarantine. When sequestration is announced by the federal government, expect no fruit to freely go out of the state without the proof that has been fumigated and cold treated amply or that it grew out from a part without the termite outbreak.
The Kansas pest act relays that it is not legal for an individual to break an agreement of a corporate quarantine and the state can bring suit to any person who takes in isolated items. The perpetual direction of the entomology division is to protect Kansas from harmful pests. The pests out of state that are unhealthy are the ones entomologist strive to catch and the list includes gypsy moth, Japanese beetle, soybean cyst nematode and witch weed which al all not found in Kansas.
Kansas has its own share of pests that are blocked off by other states. For example, California will not allow Kansas to send them corn and sorghum grain unless a certification of fumigation and strict screening is to accompany them because of the latter has European corn borer which is not present in California. Kansas apples cannot enter California unless adequately being cured because of the existing cases of plumb curculio and apple maggot. Individual states have guidelines made to confine pests in one place as much as possible, just like the neighboring countries which made it a requirement for specified Kansas products to certify its clearance from pests before entering their vicinity.
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