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New apple maggot signs bring renewed awareness to an old problem
OLYMPIA -- The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) in collaboration with the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission and the Washington Department of Transportation completed the installation of several new apple maggot quarantine signs last month.
The project concludes two years of work to create an updated design for the apple maggot quarantine road signs, revise apple maggot quarantine sign placement, remove old, out-of-place signs, and install the newly designed signs.
The new red, white and black signs were designed to be more eye-catching than older signs, with the aim of stopping the transport of homegrown fruit – especially apples – out of apple maggot quarantine areas into pest-free areas.
“Apple maggots are poor fliers,” Jim Marra, WSDA pest program manager, said. “The largest contributor to the spread of apple maggot is human movement of the pest.” For example, someone from a quarantined county in Western Washington may bring infested apples to Eastern Washington on a camping trip. WSDA is hopeful the new signs will help stop these quarantine violations.
The first step to abiding by the apple maggot quarantine is knowing whether you are in a quarantined area or not. WSDA now has an online interactive apple maggot quarantine map where the public can enter an address and determine whether it is in a quarantined or pest-free area of the state.
Apple maggot was first detected in Washington in 1980. It spread rapidly along the I-5 corridor and throughout Western Washington, eventually making its way into several Eastern Washington counties as well.
Despite the spread of the pest, most of the state’s main apple-growing areas have very low levels of pest or remain pest-free thanks to WSDA trapping and monitoring efforts and work from local county pest boards to manage the pest when it is found in an area.
Combined state, local and industry efforts have also prevented apple maggot from ever being detected in commercial apples, which is critical to Washington’s iconic apple industry. If apple maggots were found in commercial apples, it would have devastating impacts on the ability to export Washington’s top crop, which is valued at over $1 billion annually.
Visit WSDA’s website at agr.wa.gov/applemaggot for more information about apple maggot and the apple maggot quarantine.