Mexican Fruit Fly Regulations; Regulated Areas, Regulated Articles, and Treatments

We are adopting as a final rule, without change, a series of interim rules published in the Federal Register between September 1999 and June 2000 that amended the Mexican fruit fly regulations by adding and subsequently removing regulated areas in the State of California. One of the interim rules also added an alternative chemical treatment for premises; added a cold treatment for citrons, litchis, longans, persimmons, and white zapotes, which are regulated articles; and removed kumquats from the list of regulated articles. These actions were necessary on an emergency basis to prevent the spread of the Mexican fruit fly into noninfested areas of the continental United States, to provide additional treatment options for regulated articles, and to relieve unnecessary restrictions on the movement of kumquats from regulated areas.