Word: pest
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...been adjudged a peril to the Western range. Since 1971, when free-roaming horses were put under tight federal protection, they have been multiplying with Malthusian consequences, gobbling up valuable sheep and cattle forage and leaving the range threadbare. Complains Colorado Rancher Dean Burke: "The wild horse is a pest. He has been eating us out of house and home...
...going to get that little bug before that little bug gets my poll ratings down any further." So vowed California's embattled Jerry Brown last week about the Mediterranean fruit fly, a pest that has pushed Brown's approval rating to its second lowest level in his nearly seven years as Governor.* California Pollster Mervin Field last month reported that 72% of state voters rated Brown's performance as "fair" or "poor." Some 60% criticized his go-slow approach to aerial spraying of the tiny golden-mawed Medfly, which thus far has afflicted only one commercial farm...
This "integrated pest management program," as it was called, seemed to work in Los Angeles. But the speckled little bugs continued to show up in the north. By July, officials found Medflies at more than 100 sites and worriedly placed three counties under quarantine. Roadblocks were set up and officials confiscated fruit from vehicles leaving the area. Still, Brown stubbornly refused to permit aerial spraying-until the Reagan Administration finally threatened to embargo all California produce. By then, it may have been too late. Two weeks ago, on what San Joaquin farmers now call Black Friday, a fertile female Medfly...
After anxious negotiations between Washington and Tokyo, plus a none-too-subtle warning from California's Governor Jerry Brown that his state might retaliate by boycotting Japanese wares, Japan backed down. At least temporarily, it agreed to accept produce guaranteed to be pest-free. But the Japanese could quickly reverse themselves, and to reassure them, the U.S. Department of Agriculture dispatched a delegation of technical experts to Tokyo to explain just what the U.S. is doing to curb the infestation. Said one American official: "They've got some legitimate concerns...
...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...