Plants sprayed for bugs

For one Newport Beach resident, there was nothing comforting about seeing state agricultural officials go in his backyard to spray pesticides.

“They tell us it’s not dangerous, but I notice they wear hazmat suits,” Rick Taylor said. He claims the last time they sprayed the area, several dogs got sick, and now he’s worried about children Easter egg hunting Sunday.

State Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman Steve Lyle said the suits are a safety precaution and that as soon as the chemicals dry, the plants should be safe to touch, especially by Sunday.

“As long as the instructions we leave on the literature are followed, it shouldn’t be an issue,” Lyle said. “It spells out how long they should wait before going into the garden.”

State workers have rekindled their two-year-old battle against root weevils in Orange County, Lyle said.

“It threatens a lot of plants that don’t have a lot of natural enemies,” Lyle said. “It causes a lot of damage.”

The plant-munching pest, known to scientists as Diaprepes, has a taste for citrus trees and landscaping plants, according to the state’s website.

It spread west from Florida where it was first introduced from islands off its coast in the 1960s, with the first local sighting of weevils happening in Newport Beach off MacArthur Boulevard in September 2005. Reports of weevils sprang up in Costa Mesa last June.

“One of the communities where we found pests were in newer communities and communities that could bring in new landscaping. And the theory is that they came in with that,” Lyle said. “Pests hitch rides, that’s how they get here.”

Agriculture officials restarted spraying in Newport Beach March 3 and in Costa Mesa March 12. Treatment should be done sometime in April, Lyle said.

State officials recommend thoroughly washing any fruits or vegetables exposed to the pesticides and avoiding contact with any foliage until the chemicals have dried. The general rule is to have you and your animals avoid contact with the plants for 12 to 24 hours after treatment, Lyle said. The area would likely be safe by Sunday, he said. Officials recommend not removing any plant material or soil from the area to prevent the pests from spreading. Also, hold off on any harvesting for between one to three weeks.

For more information, call (800) 491-1899.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].