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How to identify it
- Adults are larger than a house fly, pale orange-yellow, with two or three whitish stripes on the thorax. The clear wings carry yellow-orange and brown bands.[1][2]
- Females have a long, slender egg-laying tube (ovipositor) that they use to put eggs under the fruit's skin.[1][2]
- Larvae are legless, white to yellowish-white maggots that grow to about 0.4 inch; EPPO gives up to 11.1 mm.[1][2]
- Early damage is hard to spot: the egg punctures in the skin are tiny, and tunnels and rot can spread inside the fruit before anything shows outside.[2]
Look-alikes
| Look-alike | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Caribbean fruit fly | Both belong to the genus Anastrepha and share the banded wing pattern. EPPO says confirming the species requires examining the tip of a female's ovipositor, so it is a job for specialists.[2] |
Where it lives
APHIS says it was first found in central Mexico in 1863 and along the California–Mexico border by the early 1950s. EPPO places it from northeastern Mexico south to Panama and says it is not established in the United States: frequent incursions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and outbreaks in California, and less often Arizona, have been eradicated, and single flies are sometimes trapped in other states such as Florida.[1][2]
Biology and life cycle
APHIS says Mexfly can infest more than 50 kinds of fruits and vegetables, particularly citrus and mango; the Texas Department of Agriculture says more than 40. EPPO's host list includes grapefruit, orange, mandarin, mango, avocado, guava, peach, pear, apple, quince, pomegranate, persimmon and passion fruit.[1][3][2]
Females lay eggs singly or in clutches of up to 40, with bigger fruit getting bigger clutches. Eggs hatch in 3 to 12 days, and the larvae feed for 8 to 30 days in the white layer of the rind or the pulp, then leave the fruit to pupate in the soil. Adults emerge 12 to 32 days later, depending on temperature.[2]
Adults can live up to a year under some conditions and are present year-round. Males call for mates with a pheromone in the late afternoon, and mating happens at dusk. Adults have been reported to fly as far as 135 km (about 84 miles).[2]
Damage and signs
Health risk
APHIS and EPPO treat it only as a crop pest that makes fruit inedible and unmarketable; neither describes any risk to people.[1][2]
Control
Prevention
Everywhere else, don't bring or mail fresh fruit, vegetables or plants into a state unless agricultural inspectors have cleared them, declare produce when returning from abroad, and let survey crews place and check traps on your property if asked.[1]
Sanitation
Inside a quarantine area, APHIS asks residents not to move or mail fruit from home citrus trees, to pick citrus as soon as it ripens, to leave no ripe fruit on the tree or the ground, to double-bag fruit they won't use for the trash, and not to compost fruit or vegetables.[1]
When to call a professional
Eradication is run by USDA APHIS with state agriculture departments. Programs combine extra traps, removal of fruit at infested and neighboring properties, protein-bait sprays, soil drenches under host trees against larvae and pupae, and sterile-fly releases, which EPPO says have worked against Mexfly in southern Texas and northern Mexico.[4][2][5]
Quarantines in 2026
Texas had no Mexfly quarantine areas as of the Texas Department of Agriculture's most recent notice (September 2, 2026). Quarantines around Peñitas and Granjeno (Hidalgo County), La Feria (Cameron County), Zapata (Zapata County) and Laredo (Webb County) were lifted between June and September 2026; APHIS says the Hidalgo County population was eradicated.[3][6]
In California, APHIS and the California Department of Food and Agriculture set up a quarantine in La Mesa, San Diego County, in March 2026 after a mated female was trapped in a loquat tree on a residential property. Later finds in Spring Valley, El Cajon and La Mesa enlarged it, and by APHIS's September 23, 2026 order the merged La Mesa quarantine covered about 173 square miles, including 338.5 acres of commercial avocado, citrus, stone fruit and tomatoes.[7][5]
In July 2026 APHIS issued host lists for federal Mexfly quarantines that regulate the fruits, berries, nuts and vegetables of the listed plants, and it states that Mexfly is established in Mexico and Central America but not in the continental United States. Current quarantine maps are on APHIS's Exotic Fruit Flies page.[8][4]
Common questions
- Can I control Mexican fruit fly in my backyard citrus?
- Not on your own. Eradication is handled by USDA APHIS and state agriculture departments. In a quarantine area, your part is picking ripe fruit promptly, bagging unused fruit for the trash and not moving fruit off the property.[1][4]
- Which fruits does the Mexican fruit fly attack?
- Citrus and mango above all, plus dozens of other fruits such as avocado, guava, peach, pear, apple and quince.[1][2]
- Is there a Mexican fruit fly quarantine right now?
- Not in Texas as of the state's September 2, 2026 notice. In California, the La Mesa quarantine in San Diego County was in place and had just been enlarged as of APHIS's September 23, 2026 order.[3][5]
Sources
- USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), “Mexican Fruit Fly (last modified July 28, 2026).” www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-pests-diseases/mexfly (accessed 2026-11-11)
- European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO Global Database), “Anastrepha ludens (ANSTLU) datasheet.” gd.eppo.int/taxon/ANSTLU/datasheet (accessed 2026-11-11)
- Texas Department of Agriculture, “Mexican Fruit Fly (Pest and Disease Alerts; quarantine area declarations).” texasagriculture.gov/RegulatoryPrograms/PlantQuality/PestandDiseaseAlerts/MexicanFruitFly.aspx (accessed 2026-11-11)
- USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), “Exotic Fruit Flies.” www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-pests-diseases/fruit-flies (accessed 2026-11-11)
- USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), “DA-2026-36: APHIS Expands Mexican Fruit Fly (Anastrepha ludens) Quarantine in San Diego County, California (September 23, 2026).” www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/da-2026-36.pdf (accessed 2026-11-11)
- USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), “DA-2026-32: APHIS Removes Mexican Fruit Fly (Anastrepha ludens) Quarantine in Hidalgo County, Texas (September 1, 2026).” www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/da-2026-32.pdf (accessed 2026-11-11)
- USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), “DA-2026-10: APHIS Establishes a Mexican Fruit Fly (Anastrepha ludens) Quarantine Area in California (March 16, 2026).” www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/da-2026-10.pdf (accessed 2026-11-11)
- USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), “DA-2026-20: APHIS Establishes Host Lists for Regulated Articles for Three Tephritid Fruit Fly Species for Federal Quarantines in the United States (July 29, 2026).” www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/da-2026-20.pdf (accessed 2026-11-11)
- iNaturalist, “Anastrepha ludens taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/349065 (accessed 2026-10-06)