Fruit fly infestation in South Bay is causing problems for farmers, impacting San Jose orchard

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A fruit fly infestation is causing problems for farmers, and an orchard dedicated to growing fruit for food banks is now making changes because of a quarantine across Santa Clara County.

Navel oranges so sweet you could smell them are at risk.

There is a quarantine in parts of Santa Clara County because of an infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly. It's forcing farms to change how they operate.

Andrew Tower showed us around the 14-acre orange orchard in North San Jose his family has been farming for the past three generations.

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"To me, this orchard is priceless," Tower said.

The state is implementing an emergency program for properties within a 4.5-mile radius of Medfly detections. Starting November 1, Tower said he and his family will have to spray the orchard every 10 days with insecticide.

"It's all organic, it's 95% molasses, and that's what draws them in... to make sure they get the other 5%, which is a surfactant which suspends the sterilization," Tower said.

It's a treatment Tower and other growers will have to do for 190 days.

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"I'm going to probably have to put 200 and something miles on a pair of mud boots this season," Tower said.

Even though it's extra work, to Tower and his family, it's all worth it. 2018 was the last year they harvested for commercial use. For the past eight years, they've partnered with Village Harvest, where volunteers help pick the fruit and donate it to the Second Harvest of Silicon Valley food bank.

"It could be as close as half a mile, and then some of it does go up to the San Mateo for their foodbanks," Tower said.

When they are harvesting, volunteers with Village Harvest come to the orchard twice a week and can fill 20 to 25 bins.

"Each bin feeds about 300 families. Everyone gets 2 to 3 pounds of fruit," Tower said.

Santa Clara County's Division of Agriculture said no pesticide spraying will occur because of the Medly quarantine.

They ask for people living within the quarantine zone do not share their homegrown fruit or vegetables with others.

A list of fruits can be found here.

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