The discovery in Tracy, California, of the feared crop pest, the Asian citrus psyllid, mobilized local, state and federal farm officials, Tuesday 3rd May. A single Asian citrus psyllid was identified in the area of Lammers and Valpico roads in Tracy on April 27; government experts are now setting out traps and inspecting trees and shrubs in the immediate area.
Tim Pelican, San Joaquin County agricultural commissioner, said the tiny insect is a dangerous pest.
“While San Joaquin County has very little commercial citrus, there is a $10.7 billion dollar industry statewide not counting the nursery industry,” he said in a news release Tuesday. “It is our duty to not only help protect the industry … but also the citrus that many of us grow in our own backyards.”
Pesticide applications to eradicate the exotic invader are being planned.
Fortunately, other than a commercial nursery near the find site, there are few homes or other areas with landscaping that could provide a home for the Asian citrus psyllid, Pelican said.
If inspectors identify citrus trees or other plants that might host the psyllid within 100 meters of the find site, spray treatments might be needed.
Similar finds of the Asian citrus psyllid in Lodi and Manteca in late 2014 and in Stockton in December 2015 led to quarantines against the removal of citrus fruit and plant material, which remain in place.
Pelican said the unwanted pest has turned up in many parts of California, including in nearly all counties in the San Joaquin Valley.
Source: recordnet.com
