trees this year, after Agriculture & Fisheries workers used damaging sprays to `protect' the trees.

Several of the victims, who have their trees sprayed four times a year, yesterday told The Royal Gazette they could not understand why their unripe citrus fruits began falling off the trees last month.

"Any fruit -- grapefruits, oranges, and tangelos -- that I had on the trees just fell off,'' Mr. Durham Stephens of Hungry Bay in Paget said.

"The trees are just beginning to grow back, but they have no fruit on them.

The right time for them to bud is March and April so this year they will not get any fruit.

"We pay to have the trees sprayed four times a year.'' Mr. Stephens said he was told that Agriculture and Fisheries used the wrong spray when he inquired, but he did not know what was used and why.

Mr. Stephens' brother, Richard, also had his trees damaged.

"We have our citrus all winter long which we enjoy and share with relatives,'' his wife Janice said. "We don't expect a bumper crop every year, but we've never experienced anything like this.

"Other than a few lemons that are left and ready to pick, we will have no fruit. We pay them in excess of $100 to do our trees.'' The Stephens, who have about nine citrus trees on their South Shore, Paget property, said the department has been spraying their trees for years and this is the first time that something like this has happened.

But one Devonshire man, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "The opinion of a lot of people is they've (Agriculture & Fisheries) never had anyone down there who knows about citrus trees''.

"I had the best crop of oranges ever,'' he said. "Now I don't have one on the tree.'' But senior plant protection officer Mr. Kevin Monkman stressed that the department was just upset about this as the tree owners and he said residents whose trees were damaged will not have to pay for the spraying.

"We had a different type of copper fungicide shipped to us which was mixed at the incorrect strength,'' he explained, adding that the department sends out a request every year for bids on the products it uses.

But this time, he said: "I did not see the product and it slipped through.

"We were baffled, until we saw the bag and realised that the mixture had a high concentration (of copper).

"We were very upset that it happened and as soon as we saw it was a problem, we stopped any further spraying so we would not do any more damage.'' Mr. Monkman said: "The trees I've seen still had some of the fruit, but the damage on some was quite extensive. Citrus trees, except for limes and lemons which flower all along, only bare fruit once a year'.' The department is now using a new mixture of spray (malathion and chlorobenzilate) on trees.

And, Mr. Monkman said, trees that have been sprayed with the new mixture are monitored weekly.