LOCAL : Spray Area Warnings Issued

ANAHEIM — State and county agriculture officials, trying to stave off the spread of the destructive Mediterranean fruit fly, today began distributing about 100,000 flyers to North Orange County residents whose neighborhoods are to be sprayed later this week with a pesticide.

The assault was prompted by the discovery earlier this month in a Brea guava tree of a pregnant Medfly, the insect that ravaged the state’s agriculture in 1981. County officials said today that they have revised earlier strategies for combating the Medfly and are planning only one pesticide spraying over a 10-square-mile area of the northern county rather than seven separate applications.

That will come Thursday night unless heavy winds cause a delay. County and state officials, although asserting there are no health risks posed by the spraying with the possible exception of temporary eye irritation, are urging residents in the affected area to stay indoors Thursday night and to put pets and cars under cover.