I Was Quoted About Insect Traps

Stephanie Walton of the Daily Breeze consistently gets things quickly, and gets them right - at least, whenever I've talked with her seen her print something with which I have been involved. She writes answers to "Ask Us" submissions made by the paper's readers. I used to get calls from Ms. Walton when I was at Public Works, and I get them from her now, too.

This time, the question was about possible insect traps someone was seeing around Torrance. One kind of trap spotted sound like ones used for trapping Asian Citrus Psyllid.

That pest now has been found in dozens of cities in the county, said Ken Pellman, public information officer for the county's Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights & Measures. The disease the species can transmit, Huanglongbing (HLB), which kills citrus trees, has not been detected in trapped specimens in the state, Pellman said.

I try to let people know what they can do, especially when an ounce of prevention is better than many pounds of cure. The Daily Breeze coverage area rangs from LAX to the ports, which means the area that will often get hit first with an infestation.

"We really need the help of your readers in preventing infestations of destructive exotic pests," Pellman said.

"Fruits, vegetables and other plant materials that come from outside of California may bring with them pests - such as insects, diseases and weeds - that don't belong in California. Those things are problems because they kill or harm native species, damage buildings, destroy landscaping and home-grown fruits and vegetables, and add extra costs to California's agriculture industry - costs that will get passed along to consumers."

Don't bug California!

Coyotes in Ventura County

One of the things my Department - Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures - handles is protecting people from aggressive coyotes. However, we only do it unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and with cities that contract with us. Currently, all of those cities are in Los Angeles County. But I spoke with Nancy Needham about coyotes within a Ventura County neighborhood, and so I was quoted in this story.

The L.A. County Agricultural Commission has a coyote removal program that uses snares to catch the coyote, which is then euthanized. It’s against the law to relocate coyotes, said Ken Pellman, spokesperson for the county agricultural commission.

Just for the record, the name of the Department is Commissioner, not Commission. The head of the Department is the Agricultural Commissioner for the county. We're not run on a day-to-day basis by a commission.

"We need coyotes. They perform a service. They keep rodent populations in check," Pellman said.

Many people love coyotes and are quick to point out the animals were here before we were, he said.

But the wily critters are not a protected species. Although coyotes cannot legally be caught with leg traps or killed with certain poisons, Pellman said, the humane extermination of coyotes is as legal as getting rid of rats.

He said coyotes that roam neighborhoods during the day and take pets out of backyards when people are present are a problem.

"They show aggression when they do not stay away from people. They become a danger when they are not afraid of people," Pellman said.

I was speaking more about infants and toddlers when I gave this crackerjack parenting advice...

"Children should always be watched. A child should never be left alone where coyotes have been trained to get food from people," Pellman said.

Ah, the circle of life.

The Wild Life

I have neglected this blog. I've been a little busy. You can find my daily updates on Facebook. Figured now was as good of a time as any to update this blog, since I am quoted in today's Daily News in Troy Anderson's article. It is a story about how residents can protect themselves from wild animals (coyotes, bears, etc.)

Residents in the foothills and near the burn areas need to be cautious about wild animals displaced by the Station Fire and subsequent debris flows, said Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner's Office spokesman Ken Pellman.

He suggested residents keep a close eye on small children and avoid jogging or hiking near wildlife areas when animals are most active - dusk, nighttime and dawn.

"We want people to know the No. 1 way they can protect themselves is not to leave anything that could be considered food outside - whether that's food or pets," Pellman said. "People should keep their garbage cans tightly sealed and if they see a wild animal not to approach it, especially bear cubs."

You are warned.

I Was Quoted About Medflies

I've been busy working extra hours over the last couple of days. Why? Meditterranean Fruit Flies, or "Medflies" for short. It's a non-native pest that agriculture professionals want to keep out of California. There is a long, heated history when it comes to that fight, so when fertile Medflies are found, the news media takes note. Most people, however, would never notice the present-day methods used to eradicate this pest.

Megan Bagdonas of the Daily Breeze talked with me about the situation yesterday. Here are quotes from her article:

“The chances of a fertile female finding a fertile male is extremely small once there’s hundreds of thousands of these sterile males flying around,” said Ken Pellman, spokesman for the county Agriculture Commissioner’s Office.

[SNIP]

Adult Medflies are not harmful, but the eggs they lay inside fruits and vegetables hatch into hungry larvae that destroy agricultural crops. Officials say they don’t know where the South Bay invaders came from.

“We have inspectors at the airport and the port that examine for pests, but it’s possible they got through when a cargo door was opened,” Pellman said. “That’s why we tell people traveling not to bring in fruits or vegetables, especially from Hawaii,” which has a Medfly infestation..

[SNIP}

“If this fly gets a foothold in the state, prices of fruit and vegetables will skyrocket and organic farmers, especially, will have a lot more crop loss,” Pellman said. “An ounce of prevention is cheaper than a pound of cure.”

I Was Quoted About the Wildfires

Yesterday, I talked with an Associated Press wire reporter, Juliana Barbassa, about the impacts of the recent wildfires on agriculture in Los Angeles County. As a result, I was cited in this story, which has appeared on news sites (and, I'm presuming, in newspapers) all over the world.

Here's my section...

Even in Los Angeles County, where agriculture has been pushed to the margins by decades of development, small farms that linger among Malibu's million-dollar homes are reporting losses, said Ken Pellman, a spokesman for the county's agriculture commissioner.

One ranch in the hills above Pepperdine University lost 80 percent of the avocados grown on a three-acre plot, five trucks and all 52 goats they kept to abate weeds and prevent the spread of fire.

Made the Papaer and the TV and Radio News

Just doin' my job.

A coworker mine caught two more Oriental Fruit Flies close to each other, this time northwest of downtown L.A., so that meant more news media work. You may have caught me on KNX AM 1070 (where my childhood classmate Ms. Reyes does traffic!) or saw me on the KNBC-TV Channel 4 News.

Also, I was in today's San Gabriel Valley Tribune, talkin' 'bout a weed abatement issue. You see, Fire departments make sure that property owners with houses or businesses or some other structure on their property do proper brush clearance on their property. My coworkers enforce brush clearance on "unimproved" (unoccupied) parcels.

http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_7009642
Brittle Brush Beautiful, Dangerous
By Bethania Palma, Staff Writer
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

"Our people have been working with the residents," said Ken Pellman,
spokesman for the L.A. County Agricultural Commissioner. "It's ongoing."

He added that the county commissioner's office has "no dispute" with the state Fish and Game department.

Pellman said the threat of fire is mitigated by a paved emergency access road that separates the weeds from homes.

"It's not what we consider a real high fire hazard," he said. "It could burn, but it's not the highest priority."

More Oriental Fruit Flies

This time, they're in the South Bay. While treatments are ongoing in the Glendale/Burbank area, treatments are going to start up in another area. I've already recorded an interview for radio.

Here is a quote from the Daily Breeze, based on a wire report prompted by our press release.

The fruit flies were found in county traps between Sept. 4-6 in the unincorporated Harbor City area and the city of Rolling Hills Estates. The Oriental Fruit Fly “is one of the world’s most destructive insect pests,” Ken Pellman of the County of Los Angeles Department of Agriculture Commissioner/Weights and Measures said in a
statement.

“A potential breeding population is indicated by the very limited time and distance between these detections,” Pellman said, adding that the California Department of Food and Agriculture would conduct the spraying, or “squirting.”

The spraying could start even earlier if more of the fruit flies are found. The “male eradication” program will entail squirting fruit fly “bait” on utility poles, trees and light poles. The bait contains a small amount of Naled pesticide that will kill the flies, Pellman said.

The story is also covered already here and here.

Two Tiny Fruit Flies Get Me on TV

Thanks for two male Oriental Fruit Fly specimens founds in Glendale, I'm being quoted in newspapers, heard on news radio, and and seen on television news.

Yesterday, KFWB AM 980 and KNX AM 1070 both recorded phone interviews with me, and I heard some of my quotes on KFWB today.

Today, I did on-camera interviews with KTTV Channel 11, KNBC-TV Channel 4, and KABC-TV Channel 7. KABC has the video on their website. I haven't seen myself on KNBC, and KTTV's news airs in about half an hour.

I was also quoted on the KCAL-TV 9/KCBS-TV 2 news website:

"People can go about their daily lives without concern," said Ken Pellman, public information officer for the Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures.

I was also quoted in the Glendale News-Press:

Two Oriental fruit flies — which as larvae are among the most destructive insects to fruits and vegetables — turned up Aug. 21 and Friday in insect traps, which are used to monitor pest activity, said Ken Pellman, spokesman for the L.A. County agricultural commissioner.

In response, the department will conduct a large-scale eradication effort, applying pesticide-laced bait 6 to 8 feet up tree trunks and utility poles, covering about 600 spots per square mile, Pellman said.

The agent is designed to kill male fruit flies and is not harmful to humans, he added.

“It’s a really effective method we find,” he said. “Oriental fruit flies have been found before, but these eradication efforts have been very successful in the past, so that they don’t become established and get a foothold in the area.”

A wild fruit fly population could threaten agricultural crops, as well as vegetable and fruit trees in private yards, Pellman said.

“Hopefully, these were the only two, and that’s entirely possible because we do set up traps — there are traps everywhere — and we keep checking them for these pests, and quite often they don’t show up again,” he said.

Though Glendale has little agriculture, the pests can pose problems for plant nurseries, which could have controls put on their shipments if the area were to be quarantined over a fruit fly scare, Pellman said.

And...

The Oriental fruit fly reportedly has the potential to wreak more havoc than the infamous Oriental fruit flies, which are native to Southeast Asia and are found in Hawaii and other Pacific islands, can be brought in by travelers transporting fruits and vegetables into the continental United States, as well as in goods shipped into the country, Pellman said.

“There’s no way to know for sure, but with transportation being what it is, people travel, and they’ll bring back fruits and vegetables,” he said.

“Or relatives or friends from their country of origin will send them as gifts, or they could just stow away in cargo holds of airplanes.”

Inspections at shipping ports and airports are designed to keep harmful insects from migrating into the United States via produce, he added.

“We do have efforts to check at ports and airports and shipping to check for pests on shipment that’s entering, whether it’s fruits, vegetables or ornamental plants,” he said.

“It’s possible they can get through that way too, but we do have pretty good inspectors in that regard.”

I Was Quoted

Although I'm not being quoted as often as I was when I was with Public Works, it still happens from time to time.

This time, I'm quoted in the Capital Press in a piece by Elizabeth Larson and Bob Krauter.

Southern California agricultural officials are on high alert after the discovery of a light brown apple moth in the northwest area of Los Angeles County.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed the L.A. find Monday and also the discovery of the moth in Solano County, bringing to 11
the total number of counties where the pest has been found.

Ken Pellman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County agricultural commissioner, said the single moth was picked up in a trap June 28 in Sherman Oaks.

"We're hoping that this was a one and only. We have traps out everywhere and we hope this is not indicative of an on-going problem," Pellman said.

County officials have placed an additional 25 traps per square mile in a nine-mile radius around the Sherman Oaks discovery to determine if more moths are in the area.

The Sherman Oaks find marks the first discovery in Southern California. The invasive pest, which damages hundreds of plants and fruits, had most recently been found in Napa County at the start of May. State agricultural officials reported that a single moth was trapped recently in Vallejo in Solano County. As of Wednesday, no additional moths had been discovered.

This is a foreign pest that destroys a wide range of crops and ornamental plants. We don't want it to get a foothold in the County of Los Angeles.

I Was Quoted on Brush Clearance

In October, I moved via promotion from the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works (DPW) to the Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights & Measures (ACWM). ACWM is a lower-profile Department, and so typically, I will not be showing up on the news media as often as I used to.

Once of the things ACWM does is "Weed Abatement" - brush clearance. Owners of developed properties are contacted by the Fire Department and told what they have to do as far as brush clearance, and we contact the owners of "unimproved" parcels (vacant lots). This is done every year to help prevent fires from spreading and destroying structures and killing people.

Jason Wells of the Glendale News-Press (an affiliate of the Los Angeles Times) wrote about the efforts currently underway in the Glendale area.

Fire officials are calling on property owners to clear out brush from around buildings that could later become fuel for what is shaping up to be one
of the area's driest fire seasons on record. Glendale firefighters will be
patrolling neighborhoods through July that are at a high risk for brush fires to
make sure residents are complying with guidelines for creating 100-foot barriers
of cleared brush around buildings and other landscape maintenance, said Doug
Nickels, fire prevention coordinator for the fire department.

County officials will also be combing through the areas this month
to make sure owners of vacant lots have complied with notices ordering them to
clear out dry vegetation, said Ken Pellman, spokesman for the Los Angeles County
Weed Hazard and Pest Management Bureau. There is unusual urgency behind the
weed abatement programs this year because of record rain shortfalls for Glendale
and La Crescenta that resulted in a landscape of dry vegetation that would offer
little resistance to flames, officials said.

A report by the National Interagency Fire Center also warned that the potential for fires this season would be above normal in Southern California due to a dry winter and spring. "This year we are being more stringent because of the dry
conditions," Pellman said.
[snip]
The lack of rain this year may have cut down on that growth, but it has also made the vegetation highly flammable and able to quickly transfer flames from one lot to the next, Pellman said.

"That's where the problem comes in," he said. "If there's enough to be flammable, it's too much."

Owners of vacant property who have failed to heed county notices to clear vegetation will have to pay the tab for county workers who do it for them
starting on May 16, he said.