Hi,
I am hoping that someone in California can/will help me. I want to get one or two dozen Profichi figs from a caprifig grower out there. There are at least two old fig trees here in Salt Lake that are smyrna type, and I would love to hang some baskets of wasp filled profichi figs in them in June to get them to ripen the hundreds of figs that they normally drop every year.

I really hope someone out there in California will help me this year. I will gladly pay for your time, the cost of the profichi figs and the shipping. I know there are caprifig growers that serve the Calmyrna growers in a few areas of California, it seems like it should be possible to find them and get a few dozen of the pollen and wasp filled figs sometime in June.

Please let me know if you are willing and able to help me with this project. I won't have the time to drive out there this year.

You can either reply to this thread of PM me.

Thanks!

I've send emails to several farms in the Valley asking for a lead on wasps. The one contact I had a couple years ago did not pan out. If I hear from any of these fig farms I'll let you know.

Spoke to Howard at UCD last year about shipping wasp-ladened caprifigs. He wasn't too against the notion but didn't think he could ship live bugs across State lines. You might give him a call and see what he says.

Thanks Sue. Here is an address for a grower of caprifigs in Orosi. Maybe they would ship you some.

Butler Ranches
15046 Ave 438
Orosi, CA 93647-9622

As for the question of interstate shipping, the fig wasp is a beneficial pollinator like the honey bee
is. I recieved the following from the top entomologist for USDA:

Dear Mr. King,

No permit would be required from the USDA to bring the fig wasps from
California to Utah.  The careful distinction that we make is to refer to
the movement from CA to UT as "interstate transport" rather than import.
Import is only for entering into the US.
I hope this answers any questions you may have.  Please feel free to
contact me.

Sincerely,

Wayne Wehling
Senior Entomologist
USDA APHIS PPQ


However, growers including Howard might be afraid to get in trouble, and without a lot of work it might be difficult to convince them to ship them to Utah. Even though who they would go to if they went to get direction on this subject would ultimately be Wayne Wehling. They might not want to go to the trouble to do the research I have and get the email from the "authority" that states clearly that no USDA permit is required.

Anyway, I may have to drive out next year and get some if there is no one who is willing/able to help this year.

Thanks!

Tom,

From the link, " It's the seeds from pollinated flowers, not the remains of wasps, that puts the crunch into figs. " :)