Backyard trees become the focus in citrus pest fight
by Ron Miller

LOS ANGELES
June 8, 2010 9:01pm

Faced with a “hot spot” in the Los Angeles Basin, authorities plan to intensify efforts to combat the Asian citrus psyllid in the region, as they report success in other areas and work to educate consumers about the threat the insect poses to their backyard citrus fruit trees.

The psyllid, first detected in California in August 2008, can carry a deadly tree disease called huanglongbing or HLB, which has caused severe damage to trees in Florida. The invasive pest has been found in San Diego, Imperial, Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties. No psyllids carrying HLB have been found in California.

In Los Angeles, there is a large infestation of Asian citrus psyllids in the Echo Park area near Dodger Stadium. Jay Van Rein, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, says authorities believe the insects have been in that location for some time because of the numbers of them. The area is full of backyard citrus trees.

“Right now, the goal is suppression and containment because there are so many Asian citrus psyllids,” Mr. Van Rein says, adding that long-term eradication remains possible.

Public meetings at which the threat of the Asian citrus psyllid is explained seem to have helped the public accept that something must be done to control the insect and protect their trees, he says.

“We do expect the Asian citrus psyllid to expand its territory in the Los Angeles Basin this fall,” says Ted Batkin, president of the California Citrus Research Board in Visalia. “How far it goes and where is anybody’s guess.”

Treatments in San Diego and Imperial counties appear to have been successful. A public outreach program that urges homeowners to inspect host plants and trees in their yards has helped. San Diego County Farm Bureau Executive Director Eric Larson says that few residents rejected efforts to provide information.

“The really good news is that so far none of the Asian citrus psyllids found in the county have had the disease on them,” he says.

Mr. Batkin has just concluded a media tour in which he explained the threat the Asian citrus psyllid poses, and says he was pleasantly surprised at the knowledge reporters and radio and television talk show hosts had acquired before his visit. By and large, the public was supportive of efforts to combat the pest, he says.

According to Mr. Batkin, the general public seems to have grasped the idea that HLB could destroy their backyard citrus just as it could commercial citrus orchards. He cites a University of California, Davis, study that found there are more citrus trees in the backyards of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties than there are in all of the state’s commercial citrus orchards.

“We are getting wonderful cooperation with the public on this issue,” Mr. Batkin says. “I see it in how the press reacts to our program and how the public reacts to our program. There is just this positive partnership developing between the homeowner and the rest of us as an industry.”

Homeowners have been urged to check their citrus trees and other potential host plants for signs of the psyllid and, if they suspect infestation, to contact their county agricultural commissioner’s office.

For now, applicators are ready to go to work if Asian citrus psyllids show up. Mr. Batkin says populations of the pest tend to peak during August.

Inspectors are checking to keep the psyllids from spreading on host material outside of quarantine zones. Traps baited with pheromones to attract the insects have been installed and monitored in all citrus-growing counties in the San Joaquin Valley and along the coast. Thus far, inspectors have not found psyllids in any additional locations outside of the five counties where the insects have been trapped to date.

Mr. Batkin says plans to combat the Asian citrus psyllid are expensive, and that they will take about $20 million to implement. Groups are seeking funds from wherever they can be found. Those involved in the citrus business have raised nearly $10 million through assessments. He says the federal government has also contributed some money, but the state doesn’t have any money for the project.

Once the HLB disease infects a citrus tree, that tree is doomed, Mr. Batkin says. But the progression of the disease is slow. Farmers or homeowners may not notice damage for several years. Mr. Batkin says that he thinks the first sign of trouble will be when an Asian citrus psyllid is found to be carrying the bacterium. That may be the first indication that California trees have been infected.

“We test both the trees and the insects, but if we find HLB it will first be found on the insects,” Mr. Batkin adds.

He also co-chairs the HLB Task Force and says research is working to find a cure for the disease. However, because it takes seven years for adequate testing it will be some time before a solution to HLB is found.

“It is a slow-moving process, but we have the potential to find a solution to the disease before it causes the damage here that it has in Florida,” he says.

(About the writer: Ron Miller is a reporter for Ag Alert, a publication of the California Farm Bureau Federation, where this article first appeared.)