New Invasive Fly Shuts Down $700 Million Florida Fruit Industry

A tiny fly has forced a sizable and productive agricultural area in Florida’s Miami-Dade County to grind to a halt. The creature, known as the Oriental fruit fly, is capable of feeding and laying eggs upon 400 different types of fruit crops. It was first spotted in Miami weeks ago and has since spread to Redland, a community in Miami-Dade that is home to many fruit growers raising crops such as papaya, tomatoes and dragon fruit.

The finding led Florida's agriculture commissioner, Adam Putnam, to declare a quarantine around 85 square miles of land in the region, an area larger than Manhattan and the Bronx combined. At this time, most crops cannot leave the area; much of the fruit will soon go to waste. Some crops can be shipped after being irradiated, but that is an expensive process.

The quarantine went into effect two weeks ago, just as farmers were preparing to harvest a variety of fruit crops, according to NPR.

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