LA Times: That havoc-wreaking psyllid is moving deep into US orange and lemon groves
A pest-borne bacterial crop disease that is incurable, fatal, and that some say is capable of forcing removal of the famous citrus orchards of Florida and California appears to have its invasion route prepared for it. The Los Angeles Times‘s Jerry Hirsch reported Saturday that the Asian citrus psyllid, an aphid-sized insect that by itself is a nuisance that can become fiendish as the vector for a “citrus greening” viral malady, has shown up sporadically in Los Angeles and looks well-entrenched along Southern California’s border with Mexico. The map is from the state’s ag dept, hi res here.
The little critters for years have been present, and considered impossible to eradicate, in Florida. Then the citrus greening disease bacterium was detected there in 2005. So far, the groves remain. The Tracker has followed this in a few earlier posts. The angle in this story is that the vector if not the contagion is popping up in San Diego County among orchards that, in some case, belong to growers feeding the organic produce market. They may not be too enthusiastic about state ag. programs that douse their trees with an organic, as in organophosphate or pyrethroids etc or other pesticides.
It seems from here that, with all the talk about this disease’s ability to ruin citrus farming, that it may be time for a paper with still-deepish pockets, such as the LA Times, to dispatch a reporter to a land where citrus and the disease are both established and to see how bad it really is.
Earlier Stories:
- San Diego Union-Trib‘s Leslie Berestein had much the same flavor to an update on the disease filed nearly two months ago.
Grist for the Mill: Univ. of Florida ag. extension ; Calif. food and ag .
Disclosure: The Tracker has a small interest in a family farm that grows some lemons – fewer all the time as foreign competition depresses prices. Mostly it’s avocados. Haven’t heard of any deadly avocado diseases on the march. Avocados, native to the New World, maybe have an advantage when it comes to invasive species.;
