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Traps, quarantine prevent costly citrus bug outbreak
Posted:<SCRIPT type=text/javascript orgFontSize="11px"> wnRenderDate('Sunday, November 13, 2011 5:49 PM EST', '', true);</SCRIPT> Nov 13, 2011 4:49 PM CST <NOSCRIPT orgFontSize="11px"></NOSCRIPT><!--END wnDate-->Updated:<SCRIPT type=text/javascript orgFontSize="11px"> wnRenderDate('Sunday, November 13, 2011 5:50 PM EST', '', true);</SCRIPT> Nov 13, 2011 4:50 PM CST <NOSCRIPT orgFontSize="11px"></NOSCRIPT><!--END wnDate--><!--END WNStoryHeader-->
By Anna Consie / Cronkite News Service
YUMA, AZ ? Stopping every 50 feet along the edge of a citrus grove, Alex Bellotti pulls a bright yellow insect trap from a tree and quickly scans it for a bug the size of a ballpoint pen tip.
An inspector for the Arizona Department of Agriculture, he'll make dozens of stops today, collecting and replacing the glue traps before bringing them to a screening facility to be examined under a microscope.
There are thousands of such traps around Yuma County as part of an intensive effort to keep the Asian citrus psyllid (pronounced SILL?id) ? and the fatal tree disease it can carry ? out of the state. The invasive species has already decimated citrus groves in Florida and has footholds in neighboring Southern California and Mexico.
"We have to keep good watch," Bellotti said. "California, Texas ? they have them, but we really don't."
So far, the traps have turned up 11 Asian citrus psyllids in Yuma County and one in Nogales. None have carried citrus greening disease.
But the initial discovery of five bugs in 2009 prompted a quarantine for most of Yuma County, the main producer of citrus in the state, said John Caravetta, the associate director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
"Asian citrus psyllid has the propensity to be very damaging and very devastating," he said.
More...
http://www.kold.com/story/16029154/costly-citrus
Posted:<SCRIPT type=text/javascript orgFontSize="11px"> wnRenderDate('Sunday, November 13, 2011 5:49 PM EST', '', true);</SCRIPT> Nov 13, 2011 4:49 PM CST <NOSCRIPT orgFontSize="11px"></NOSCRIPT><!--END wnDate-->Updated:<SCRIPT type=text/javascript orgFontSize="11px"> wnRenderDate('Sunday, November 13, 2011 5:50 PM EST', '', true);</SCRIPT> Nov 13, 2011 4:50 PM CST <NOSCRIPT orgFontSize="11px"></NOSCRIPT><!--END wnDate--><!--END WNStoryHeader-->
By Anna Consie / Cronkite News Service
YUMA, AZ ? Stopping every 50 feet along the edge of a citrus grove, Alex Bellotti pulls a bright yellow insect trap from a tree and quickly scans it for a bug the size of a ballpoint pen tip.
An inspector for the Arizona Department of Agriculture, he'll make dozens of stops today, collecting and replacing the glue traps before bringing them to a screening facility to be examined under a microscope.
There are thousands of such traps around Yuma County as part of an intensive effort to keep the Asian citrus psyllid (pronounced SILL?id) ? and the fatal tree disease it can carry ? out of the state. The invasive species has already decimated citrus groves in Florida and has footholds in neighboring Southern California and Mexico.
"We have to keep good watch," Bellotti said. "California, Texas ? they have them, but we really don't."
So far, the traps have turned up 11 Asian citrus psyllids in Yuma County and one in Nogales. None have carried citrus greening disease.
But the initial discovery of five bugs in 2009 prompted a quarantine for most of Yuma County, the main producer of citrus in the state, said John Caravetta, the associate director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
"Asian citrus psyllid has the propensity to be very damaging and very devastating," he said.
More...
http://www.kold.com/story/16029154/costly-citrus