Citrus Psyllid and Huanglongbing

You learn something new everyday.
The word in the title are words I wish I had never heard of or needed to learn.

An insect that spread from it's native Southeast Asia was detected in Florida in 1998.
Since then, it has spread throughout the Southern U.S, including Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and California.

If that wasn't bad enough, these little critters are also guilty of spreading the disease Huanglongbing or Citrus Greening Disease
Right now, there is no cure and it kill citrus trees. The infection attacks the vascular system of the trees, causing a yellowing of leaves and death within a few years.
People are urged not to share fruit or grafts with friends and neighbors to keep the disease from spreading.
The disease has the capability of making citrus trees growing impossible...as it is in parts of the world right now. Loss of income, loss of jobs and less OJ on the breakfast table.

In parts of California, traps designed to mimic the appearance of citrus fruit are being used.
And research is being done to find insects to control the psyllids:

Scientists at UC Riverside released thousands of parasitic wasps into a quarantined area full of psyllids in December, marking one of many steps in an experiment to see whether the tiny wasp will be able to naturally bring the pest population down to a manageable level.

pacbiztimes.com...


To make matter even worse, in an effort to keep the bugs at bay and stop the spread of the disease, there are programs to spray the trees.
Using Imidacloprid which is thought to be devastating to bees.

Soil-applied systemic insecticides will provide the longest lasting control of psyllids with the least impacts on beneficials. Currently three soil-applied insecticide active ingredients (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and clothianidin) are available provide control psyllids on young nonbearing trees.

edis.ifas.ufl.edu...

Further reading:
ipm.ifas.ufl.edu...
www.mydesert.com...
articles.latimes.com...
www.utsandiego.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

No worries there! Monsanto or Dow Chemical will just come along and develop genetically modified citrus crops! Makes you think sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, doesn't it? [sarcasm]

Seriously, there is so much going on that is destroying our livelihoods and way of life, it's scary!

All the more reason that cop diversity, regionally-appropriate foods, and small-scale agriculture is the only thing that will feed us in the future.

Massive plantations are FAR more threatened by this sort of thing than small-scale farms.

Oranges are not native to N.America. They originated in Asia, and were brought over to the Americas by the Spanish in the 1500's.

Problems like this will likely effect agribusiness more than it will actually effect the food supply. That's not to say it wont effect the food supply, but that the real impact will be to businesses.

We need more people growing food on a small scale involving permaculture principles:

permacultureprinciples.com...

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


New problems, yikes! Reading about this "Citrus Greening" ....

the pest is not a huge menace by itself although it can
quickly spread the bacteria responsible for citrus greening.green.blogs.nytimes.com...

I wondered if Neem Oil would be effective and looked it up. This information suggests
it could be of some help.

Environmentally friendly horticultural oils such as Organicide, Neem oil or Volck oil may be applied in sprays with water on the young foliage to discourage the adult insects from laying eggs www.stlucieco.gov...

I have used Neem Oil with sucess in many instances in the garden.
Hopefully for any home gardeners here, that may be a bit of a help.