Word: fruit
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...state was already waging an extensive land war. Seven hundred members of the California Conservation Corps helped strip fruit from the trees in infested backyards...
...Northern California the biological clock was ticking away. As helicopters began spraying the insecticide Malathion on infested areas just south of San Francisco, they were racing against the marvelous reproductive capacities of the tiny Mediterranean fruit fly: a mature female can produce 1,000 eggs over its two-month life span. Last week alone, the targeted area expanded from 120 to 140 to 180 sq. mi. and fears mounted that the fly was about to break out of the Bay Area and move into the lush farm lands of the San Joaquin Valley. The long-range worry: a federal quarantine...
...Ogden Nash Perhaps one reason was to test Jerry Brown. Last week, as swarms of voracious Mediterranean fruit flies in northern California threatened to bring a nationwide ban on shipments of fruits and vegetables from California's lush orchards and farm lands, the Democratic Governor faced one of the toughest decisions of his political career: whether to bow to California's $14 billion-a-year agriculture industry, which grows 40% of U.S. produce, or heed the angry voices of environmentalists, who have looked upon him as one of their chief political allies...
...also the biggest threat to California agriculture in years. A tiny pest the size of a grain of rice, the Medfly began showing up last summer in both the Los Angeles area and Santa Clara Country. No one knows where it came from -perhaps in fruit carried by a tourist returning from Hawaii. But though the flies are not indigenous to the mainland, they lay their eggs in at least 200 U.S.-grown fruits and vegetables, including such California staples as plums, peaches, apricots and nectarines. Maggots hatch from the eggs and feast away until the fruit drops...
...that would eat virtually anything, it has been munching its way across the Northeast. As many as 30,000 caterpillars can infest a single tree, and each of them can consume five or ten small leaves a day. They seem especially partial to the majestic oak but also eat fruit trees like apple and cherry, the maple and, alas, the already imperiled elm. If nothing else is available, they will nibble away at spruce, hardy pines and hemlocks, even shrubs-more than 500 species...