Since a single Tau fly was discovered in south Auckland, Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has been working to find out if there are more flies in the area.
The male Tau fly was found on Thursday afternoon in Manurewa.
"Within 48 hours of the detection our teams will have out 95 additional traps in the A Zone, the 200m area directly around where the fly was found," says MPI manager, surveillance and incursion investigation, Brendan Gould.
Fruit and vegetable movement outside of a defined circular area extending 1.5km from where the fly was trapped has been restricted.
The Tau fly likes to feed on pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, capsicum, zucchini, beans, mangoes, eggplant, papaya and passionfruit.
"We're asking people in the area to not move these off their property except to put them in the disposal bins provided," says Mr Gould.
The Farmers Market on the corner of Northcrest Way and Maich Rd in Manurewa will go ahead as planned tomorrow, but restrictions will be in place on the movement of the fruit and vegetables that the Tau fly feeds on.
"We appreciate that restrictions can be inconvenient but public support is vital to success and we've always had terrific community buy-in," says Mr Gould.
MPI has a network of 7600 traps set nationwide.
To find out whether your property falls within the Control Area, visit the MPI website www.mpi.govt.nz/tau-fly.
If you think you might have seen a Tau fly in your area, call the Ministry for Primary Industries helpline on 0800 80 99 66.
For more information, including a map of the controlled areas visit www.mpi.govt.nz/tau-fly.
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