Locals praised for taking fruit fly seriously

Authorities monitoring the fruit fly situation in Auckland are praising locals for taking the investigation seriously.

Just the one Queensland fruit fly has been discovered in Avondale, but the exclusion zones will remain in place for just over another week.

Ministry for Primary Industries spokesman Andrew Coleman says residents in the exclusion zones have been very understanding.

"Not one of our staff has felt like they've had to explain how serious this matter is.

"The general feeling was that the local community, particularly of Avondale and Mt Roskill, do understand how serious this is, so we're really pleased with their response."

Ms Coleman says they're still collecting fruit that's lying on the ground or has fallen from trees and taking it for testing.

He says they're being very thorough.

"Every single piece of fruit that's taken, if it's decided that it is going to be dissected and looked at, it's had to be cut up into three millimetre slices and then each slice is individually gone through, looking for eggs and larvae."

Andrew Coleman says about 85 staff are working on the investigation.

Photo: stock.xchng