Geekay Posted January 23, 2017 Report Share Posted January 23, 2017 This photo show a Fruit Fly Roadblock on the border at Wodonga (where I live) of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. The border is defined by the Murray River. In Queensland (further north) there is a pesky fly that lays its eggs in fruit, particularly tomatoes, citrus etc. When the eggs "hatch" the maggots begin eating the flesh inside the fruit. Trust me when I say it is disgusting to cut into an apparently okay looking tomatoe to find it riddled with horrible little white maggots. In an attempt to prevent the spread of this pest from the northern state of Queensland to Victoria, the Victorian Government set up these road blocks on the main highways and no fruit of any type, no matter where it originally came from, was allowed in. Each car was stopped by the officers and asked if they had fruit to declare. If you said "No Officer" and you looked honest and maybe not the type to have fruit on board, then you were waived through. Or they may just decide to search the vehicle anyway, particularly if you were a family. If you said "yes officer" and handed over fruit, they may waive you through or decide to search your vehicle further anyway. It was quite common to see families parked there with everyone devouring fruit rather than hand it over, where is was just destroyed. Even if we brought some fruit with us when we left home to go on a day trip to NSW, and then return, we had to declare any uneaten fruit and hand it over. The theory was those sneaky Queensland Fruit Fly my have flown in through our car window and laid eggs in our previously pure Victorian fruit. Unfortunately those clever Queensland Fruit Fly spread further south into NSW and on reaching the Murray River at the border to Victoria, realised they could just keep flying and enter Victoria wherever they liked, thus making the road blocks somewhat useless. Now the fruit fly are a permanent menace here and the reason I stopped growing tomatoes. I do not know the make of any of the cars in the photo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busycoupe Posted January 23, 2017 Report Share Posted January 23, 2017 When you go from island to island in Hawaii they X-ray your luggage looking for fruit. I think that they are also looking for fruit flies. Some years ago my wife and I went to Hawaii for our 25 anniversary. Our travel agent sent a fruit basket to our hotel room. When we flew from Oahu to Maui my wife forgot that she had put a couple of pieces of fruit in her suitcase. At they Maui airport they asked her if she had any fruit. "No" she replied innocently. As the bag went through the X-ray machine the inspector gave her a nasty look. Needless to say we did not get to enjoy that fruit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TodFitch Posted January 23, 2017 Report Share Posted January 23, 2017 When I was a child there were agricultural inspection stations on both sides of the Colorado River between Arizona and California to verify that you had no fruits or vegetables. The ones on the Arizona side (at least at Yuma and Blythe) have been converted to truck scales and/or Border Patrol inspection stations. The ones in California still exist, but at least if you have California license tags they just wave you through most of the time. Occasionally they will ask where you were and if it wasn't a place known for agricultural pests they wave you through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent B3B Posted January 23, 2017 Report Share Posted January 23, 2017 12 minutes ago, TodFitch said: When I was a child there were agricultural inspection stations on both sides of the Colorado River between Arizona and California to verify that you had no fruits or vegetables. The ones on the Arizona side (at least at Yuma and Blythe) have been converted to truck scales and/or Border Patrol inspection stations. The ones in California still exist, but at least if you have California license tags they just wave you through most of the time. Occasionally they will ask where you were and if it wasn't a place known for agricultural pests they wave you through. IMO, these days those CA stations are now just to keep honest people honest and the state employees employed. We pass through them every year on our way o the "Q" The employees are more interested in their conversations with each other than what we have in the cooler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plyroadking Posted January 24, 2017 Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 1 hour ago, Brent B3B said: IMO, these days those CA stations are now just to keep honest people honest and the state employees employed. We pass through them every year on our way o the "Q" The employees are more interested in their conversations with each other than what we have in the cooler I know when I drive home to visit I sure get the full inspection with my iowa plates. It was nice before they moved the inspection station and you could drive through downtown Truckee and avoid the station. Last trip two years ago I got lucky and they let me enter CA running a pint low on motor oil and 3psi under on one trailer tire..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geekay Posted January 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 22 hours ago, TodFitch said: When I was a child there were agricultural inspection stations on both sides of the Colorado River between Arizona and California to verify that you had no fruits or vegetables. The ones on the Arizona side (at least at Yuma and Blythe) have been converted to truck scales and/or Border Patrol inspection stations. The ones in California still exist, but at least if you have California license tags they just wave you through most of the time. Occasionally they will ask where you were and if it wasn't a place known for agricultural pests they wave you through. Why were there inspection stations? Did one state have a "pest" the other did not want? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geekay Posted January 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 I am told the car middle left is a Pontiac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TodFitch Posted January 25, 2017 Report Share Posted January 25, 2017 3 hours ago, Geekay said: Why were there inspection stations? Did one state have a "pest" the other did not want? Coming from the east into Arizona they were pretty worried about the boll weevil from Texas and the south getting into Arizona cotton crops. Coming from the west, there was (at least in the 1950s) some citrus diseases in California that were not present in Arizona. Might have been some other things they were looking for but as a child I wasn't paying much attention. From the east into California, I am not sure. My grandfather was an agricultural chemist and he didn't think there was much in Arizona crops that wasn't already in California. Could be that the setup is there because it was once needed and they want to keep the system working just in case they need it again (California has one of the largest agricultural industries in the US). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
48Dodger Posted January 25, 2017 Report Share Posted January 25, 2017 Oh boy ......do I remember the Medfly when growing up in San Jose, Ca.........in the 70's we had the fear of the killer bees coming for us and the Medfly killing all our food...lol. Well, us kids had that fear. There were tons of fruit fly traps and inspectors in every neighborhood as well as the inspection stations on the borders. If Disco wasn't bad enough......:D 48D Mediterranean Fruit Fly Africanized Bees Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geekay Posted January 25, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2017 Good one 48D. Those damn insects just will not stay in their own countries. Maybe Donald could build a wall completely around the USA to keep further invasions out. Cripes - as I was typing this I felt something crawling on my skin under my tee shirt - thought it was just a bug of some sort - no drama - turned out to be a decent size black house spider - even though I know they are "harmless" still gave me a fright - now safely in a jar for wife to rehouse somewhere. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggdad1951 Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Well we now have the Emerald Ash Borer here now in MN, came from MI and originally from Asia. Will KILL any as tree they infest and sadly a rigorous plan to keep them out of MN fell easily to a tenacious pest (or someone illegally transporting wood). If you go thru MI now you can see the damage they have done to a native tree with no defense or natural predator. SWATHS of trees just dead or gone. Sad really, ash trees are great shade, grow quickly and grow large and are pretty stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd B Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 That sucks Mark, WI is getting it also and I am very unhappy because all of my prime trees on my land are ASH. I have been weeding out Elm trees for the last 20 years that have died from Dutch elm disease. I only have a few left and now it looks like ASH will be next. The forester told me that I am doomed because my land is along a highway and more than likely it will come in from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggdad1951 Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 On 2/1/2017 at 8:20 PM, Todd B said: That sucks Mark, WI is getting it also and I am very unhappy because all of my prime trees on my land are ASH. I have been weeding out Elm trees for the last 20 years that have died from Dutch elm disease. I only have a few left and now it looks like ASH will be next. The forester told me that I am doomed because my land is along a highway and more than likely it will come in from there. Our property is mostly oak, and oak wilt is hitting us hard....trying to diversify by planing some variety....but then there is maple wilt and then birch beetles etc etc....never seems to stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave57210 Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 Left lane, closest to camera looks like an Austion A40 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Luke Posted March 1, 2017 Report Share Posted March 1, 2017 Car approaching is a FC Holden. First car in the RHS queue is a Morris Minor 1000. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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