could wipe out locally-grown fruit if residents don't take immediate action, the Agriculture Department warned yesterday.

If the West Indian fruit fly is allowed to make its home here, Bermuda could find itself producing maggot-infested mangoes, citrus, loquats, grapes, guavas, passion fruit and ceylon gooseberries.

People are being asked to freeze any mangoes they bought from fruit stands and grocery stores this week, or take them to the department.

If not, future fruit harvests could be "riddled with maggots', Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto warned.

The fruit fly maggots in the mangoes are difficult to detect because they turn the same colour as the orange-red fruit. But they are not harmful to humans.

"This is a very serious local problem,'' Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said. She added it was important that people immediately freeze any mangoes they bought this week to kill the potentially dangerous fly.

She said if the insect was allowed to establish itself here, it would be "terribly difficult if not impossible to eradicate''. "Our future fruit harvest will be unpalatable,'' she said.

Assistant director of Agriculture, Dr. Roberta Dow stressed that people should not simply throw their mangoes in the trash.

She said 150 cases of the Jamaican mangoes have been removed from local stores, but that is not "anywhere near'' the amount of cases in the shipment.

The cases arrived last Friday and were distributed to grocery stores on Monday by a local wholesaler.

Dr. Dow would not name the company. But she said the contaminated fruit had been sold to "many'' grocery stores.

She said the individual mangoes did not have stickers on them identifying them as Jamaican. Mangoes are also imported from the US and Mexico.

"It is critical that no one throw unfrozen mangoes outside or into the trash as this will make it possible for the fruit fly to be introduced into our environment,'' Dr. Dow said. "If it becomes established, we will have problems raising good quality fruit here.'' The fly rots fruit prematurely and makes it uneatable because maggots are crawling around inside.

Homeowners' fruit trees will be most affected, Dr. Dow said, because farmers have pesticides and fruit fly traps.

She said her department has already put traps in grocery stores to catch the fruit flies.

The fly lays its eggs in the fruit which then hatch into larvae before becoming fruit flies, which in turn find another fruit to start a family in, Dr. Dow explained.

She advised mangoes be put into the freezer for at least two weeks and then disposed of.

The mangoes were found infested with the fruit fly (Anastrepha obliqua) even though the shipment arrived with a phytosanitary certificate from Bermuda.

Dr. Dow said although it is the first fruit shipment to arrive in Bermuda infested with this particular insect, she has seen it in mangoes people have brought to the Island in their luggage.

She stressed the fruit fly was not harmful to people, even if they swallowed it.

Dr. Dow said she would know whether or not the fly had "caught on'' here in about 15 days.

"I don't think we will be able to get them (fruit flies) all, but we can lower the likelihood of the fruit flies being able to establish themselves here,'' she said. "Once they are established it's a serious problem.'' HEALTH HTH