I went to Lowes today and noticed that all of their Citrus trees were gone. There was a big sign that said that there was a quarantine in effect because of the Asian citrus psyllid. I went to another nursery this evening and the same thing. This time they had all of their citrus trees roped off and said the quarantine was in effect until further notice. Apparently the quarantine is only for the south half of San Diego County because they said that north of one of our local Highway's the quarantine wasn't in effect.

Phillip

Only 1/2 of a county, that seems strange. Wait a week or two. - Millet

Certainly the psyllids would not cross that hiway!

I'm still a long ways off! But I wouldn't be surprised if the psyllids would turn up somewhere today. They would surely hitch a ride from vacationers in Tijuana or San Diego, stowed away in clothes or bags, or crevices in the car, or accidentally trap inside the car. After a good 9 hours, they will be here.

Not to mention that travel by plane would be faster, and they could mutate to become adapted to our colder climes, thanks to the radiation bombardment from the scanners of the Department of Homeland Security, it takes only just one errant recombination, and soon they'll be here to stay. That's just being paranoid, chances are it takes several decades of selection pressure and chance recombination before we get one of ours.

But when the Asian psyllids hit the UC Riverside area, my budwood days will be over. So I'd better order all the budwoods I can from UC Riverside this coming January cuttings.

Frozen Colorado could become America's last citrus frontier. My tree's could be worth millions. - Millet

I read a article on the net the other night (Can't find it now) where they were talking to someone and they stated that they just know there is a tree somewhere in CA that has HLB & once the vector feeds from it, it will spread like it has in FL... Wish I could find that article again.

Found it.

Quote:

“Huanglongbing (HLB) disease could potentially wipe out the California citrus industry for a period of time. I’m more terrified of this disease than anything else I’ve had to deal with as an entomologist,” stated Beth Grafton-Cardwell, University of California (UC), Riverside. “It is highly likely that somewhere in California citrus HLB is infecting a tree and when the ACP carrier spreads throughout the state it will pick it up and the disease will be off and running like in Florida.

http://westernfarmpress.com/citrus/California-citrus-1008/

I know it is very difficult to erradicate an insect pest, but it has been done. I would think erradicating ACP would be a priority of the level that the Med. fruit fly was in CA. HLB essentially cannot spread without ACP except by grafting and maybe seeds and those sources can be controlled.

However, I guess if Mexico is going to be a continuous source, it may be a useless effort.

The only time a pest gets eradicated if it will be the most sought-after delicacy to be consumed by humans. Many insect species had gone extent, in part due to super-efficient human consumption. The insect won't get eliminated simply by any type of toxic chemical spraying.

Any body care for Asian Psyllid hors d'oeuvres? Pass some over here, quickly!

And I would like to emphasize that creating better tasting HLB resistant cultivars and developing agricultural practices that strengthens the tree is the most cost effective solution. Of course, quarantines would help slow down spread of the disease, but it will still spread, to buy time for research and development.