An Oriental fruit fly on a piece of fruit. Photo: Supplied / Biosecurity NZ
Biosecurity staff are out in South Auckland after finding more Oriental fruit flies in Papatoetoe on Monday.
Biosecurity NZ widened its surveillance area after it found three more fruit flies on Monday, bringing the total to four.
All of the flies were male, reassuring staff they had not been breeding.
"We're putting extra signage up, and obviously because we've extended the zone we've got staff on the ground issuing pamphlets telling them what the public needs to know, what they can and can't do," northern commissioner Mike Inglis told RNZ.
"As well as traps, we're collecting fruit to cut up and examine and as at this point there's no evidence of any breeding population."
He said staff were also meeting with businesses that sold fruit and vegetables.
"We'll be engaging with what we class as high-risk businesses, and that's those businesses that deal in fresh produce. Over the course of the last few days those local businesses have been fantastic too."
Inglis said he was confident his team could eliminate the flies, as they had done many times before.
"We'll continue to manage this. We've got vast experience alongside the public and community of eradicating this over 15 times in the last few years, so we'll continue to do what we're doing.
"[We're] very confident in terms of experience over the years. I'm very conscious though that we need the support of the community, and I know there's an inconvenience, and we try and mitigate that as far as is practical."
He warned residents of Papatoetoe may have to put up with the restrictions for several weeks.
"Generally it's between four and six weeks that we'll make that decision. We'll continue to make sure we're updating the public."
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