California / IN BRIEF : WESTMINSTER : 15 Medflies Found; Ground to Be Sprayed

State workers found 15 Mediterranean fruit flies in a residential neighborhood, the most ever found in Orange County at a single site, as the effort to gauge the threat to the region’s agriculture intensified. State officials announced they would begin ground spraying of the pesticide malathion Thursday in a 200-meter radius near where three Medflies were initially found Friday. But they said aerial spraying--the controversial method of fighting the pest used in 1989 and 1990 after four flies were discovered in Orange County--is not likely to be used this time, in part because officials do not believe the infestation is as widespread as three years ago. State workers went door-to-door in the neighborhood of single-family homes, picking fruit from trees and slicing it to check for Medfly offspring. State officials said they hoped to gather enough information to set up quarantine boundaries in the area sometime within the next two weeks.