PSA: Invasive Qfly quarantine is now in effect SOR

We’ve been kept awake each night by the menacing presence of the polyphagous shot-hole borer, leaving a trail of condemned trees in its wake… But another winged nemesis has entered the chat.

The Queensland fruit fly (or Qfly) has been spotted in Willagee and Palmyra as part of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) routine surveillance program.

Native to subtropical coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales, the invasive pest lays its eggs inside fruit – posing a significant threat to Western Australia’s horticultural industry.

The quarantine red zone can be viewed on the DPIRD website, and extends from Bicton down to Coolbellup, with the western border East Fremantle and Hilton and the eastern edge including Booragoon and Bull Creek. Importantly, parts of Mosman Park are also included in the red zone.

To check if your home is within the red or orange zones, type in your address into the DPIRD’s interactive map.

If your home is within the red zone, you’ll need to treat, eat or destroy all fruit and vegetables grown in your garden – including unripe and fallen fruit.

Homegrown produce can treated by cooking, freezing, or through a technique called “solarising”, in which the fruit is placed within black plastic and left on a hard surface in direct sunlight for at least seven days.

If you’re unable to eat or treat them, fruit and vegetables should be secured in a plastic bag and disposed of in the general waste bin – definitely not in your FOGO bin!

The orange zone extends 15km from the initial locations the fruit fly was found – you can move produce within the orange and to the red zone if they meet the zone’s movement requirements. Fruit and host plants can only move from the orange zone to the green zone if they meet at least one of the requirements listed on the DPIRD website.