CATCH THE BUZZ

The Asian Psyllid has arrived in California. This is the pest that spreads Citrus Greening in Florida. Beekeepers Beware.

From TradingMarkets.com

Reports last weekend confirmed that the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny insect known to carry a disease that wipes out citrus crops, had entered south San Diego County, near Bonita. Moast of the region's citrus groves are nestled in the valleys of North County, but some growers do not expect to keep the bug at bay.

Chuck Badger, owner of R.E. Badger & Sons, primarily grows lemons in Encinitas. He is anxiously awaiting new strains of fruit that is resistant to the bacteria commonly found among the bugs. "People talk about genetically modified foods being negative. Here, it's imperative," Badger said. Somewhat comforting to local citrus businesses is an absence of the actual disease, known as Huanglongbing. However, every time the aphidlike bug has been found, the bacterial disease has followed, said Ted Batkin, president of the California Citrus Research Board.

Further, symptoms of an infection often are delayed, meaning farmers might not realize their crop is in jeopardy before the entire orchard is affected. The disease is also known as citrus greening because it causes fruit to not ripen fully, producing bitter, inedible fruit. Eventually, it kills the tree. No known cure exists for the disease.

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"The only remedy for a plant is to take a chain saw to it so it doesn't become a point of infection for the rest of the crops," said San Diego County's agriculture commissioner, Bob Atkins. County and state agriculture officials are setting sticky traps to catch the bugs and track its location.

Other concerns, such as rising water costs on a budget that is already stretched because of high land prices, lead some to question how long citrus will remain a viable crop in this part of the state.

"It's getting to a point where it just pushes out the domestic farmer," said Ben Drake, owner of Drake Enterprises, a Temecula orchard that grows mostly avocados and wine grapes, but also oranges. He is replacing several orange groves with wine grapes. Yet urbanization and other challenges to Southern California agriculture have left him pessimistic about the industry. "If you think we have a problem now with foreign oil, wait until we're not growing our own food."

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