FRANKLIN COUNTY-- It's smaller than a fingernail, but it could deal a big blow to the local agricultural economy.

The Pest Control Board found an apple maggot near Pasco.

"A perfect storm would be if this got out of control, the economic backlash," said apple orchardist Ed Skelton. "Other countries would get inroads into our markets, and it would be hard to recover from it."

This is the third time in three years an apple maggot has been found in the area, and they are discovered closer to the orchards each year. This time, it was found only five mile from the orchards. If it gets a few miles closer, entire crops could be quarantined.

"It concerns me because of the direction it's moving," said Franklin County Pest Control Board Coordinator Tom Wilson. "It's moving out towards the orchards and getting closer to those, and that's when we could get into a real problem with the export. It's not even just export. That guy can't even sell his fruit. It's not even good for making apple sauce."

Wilson's job is to stomp out pests like the apple maggot, which is why he's spent the entire season setting traps to find the pests and eradicate them, before they can cause an agricultural collapse.

He says homeowners have a job too-- they are supposed to cut down their decorative fruit trees. Wilson says they are a breeding ground for pests their owners don't see.

"All of the sudden, the warehouse comes and tells you, 'We can no longer take your fruit,' and you're sitting there going, well, crop insurance doesn't cover this," said Skelton, describing what could happen if the pests aren't wiped out. "Basically, it's an empty feeling. You might as well have been hit by frost or weather problems, because it's just going to destroy your crop."

Wilson says people shouldn't be fooled by the name. The apple maggot doesn't just attack apples. It can infest anything with the word "fruit" in it, or any tree that flowers. The maggot burrows under fruit and turns it to mush.

Wilson says most people don't want to put in the time and effort to properly maintain their trees, which means spraying them biweekly.

"That's $90 every two weeks to spray these for the rest of the season," said Wilson. "Can you see the homeowner doing that all summer long, every two weeks, putting out $180 a month to take care of their ornamental trees? It just doesn't happen."

The Pest Control Board will spray people's trees for them, a process that is mostly paid for by the orchard industry. If the trees are problematic, the Board will cut them down.

Wilson says it pays to be a good neighbor. For every tree a homeowner cuts down, Pest Control will give a certificate to plant a replacement that doesn't bare fruit.