Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read Dereks post indicating that no permits were required to ship fruitflies. I can only tell you, that we have had to aquire a federal permit for the last 15 years. Renewable every 4 years. As a matter of fact, we have the exact same permit that Carolina Biologicals and other bio suppliers have. As far as I know its mandatory.

Each state has the right to know what species are entering their states. Some are considered hot states, such as Fla., Ca, N.M., Az. etc. and may require the shipper to provide additional information such as whom we are shipping to, what are the fruitflies, etc. Vermont is a perfect example. The DofA requires that we notify them of each shipment sent into Vermont. Louisiana until recently, prohibited the shipping of Hydei. I can post if I can find my records the original denial from our application to ship into that state. We were instrumental in changing their position accepting our application to ship Hydei.
Here I have to differ with Derek and just tell you that a permit is also required in the state of Fla by the DoA. Just as Fish and Wildlife requires permits for each state, its the same with the DoA. The requirements are necessary and are not unreasonable, but their is a fee for the FLa. permit.

Our permit is Federal, and we had to receive a permit from each and every state in the United States in order to satisfy the requirements of the DoA. The DoA does not have 1 application for 50 states, but requires 50 applications to their respective DoA in each state. Haw. and P.R. both prohibit the introduction of Hydei into their islands, and have an entirely different method for permit approval of Melanogaster.

With regard to Buzattii, I have not investigated the fly to see what additional permits if any may be necessary other than the one that we currently have on file, but theirs no doubt about it a permit is definetly required, and if the DoA wanted to persue this avenue, they could very easily fine, seize, or issue summonses, to petshops, other wholesale and retail operations and individuals who purchase these flies or Melanogaster or Hydei. I can post a copy of our federal permit if anyone is interested in seeing it. Hope this clears our position on permits.

Here is what USDA APHIS has to say about it:

Q: Do species of Drosophila need Federal import or interstate movement permits?

A. For import into the United States from foreign sources OR movement into Hawaii, a Federal permit for Drosophila spp. is required. For movement within the lower 48 States a Federal permit is not required.

This can be found at the bottom of the page in this link:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/permits/plantpest/arthropod.html

Donn

DON, this may be for a federal permit, but not for a state permit. Here I would have to differ with you. It just does not make sense that Fla. for example would have you provide a questionare, vials of fruitflies in a larval stage, and other information if it was unnessary. I understand it sounds a bit confusing, I and I would love to be mistaken, but each state can issue a permit or deny one. Not only that, but if my memory serves me correctly, we had to provide several vials of fruitflies in different stages to a variety of states that requested it. I am sure this was done to insure that what we were selling is what we were shipping into their respective states.

I dont agree with many of the policies, that are promulgated by the federal authorities, but we take a position of caution in these matters. The last thing I would need would be for a customer or store or school requesting a copy of our permit, and none was available. JERRY