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LinkedInAvocado Pests from the Past and Present in ONE Book
I recently went looking for our copies of Walter Ebeling's book on pests of subtropical tree crops. It was created over 40 years ago, but is still a great reference for past pests and those that still pop up with less frequency than avocado thrips and persea mite do today. But both copies have disappeared from the office. and we have a new entomology advisor - Hamutahl Cohen - who is coming up to speed on the pest issues of our coastal area.
But all is not lost. It's online. This is the section of Subtropical Fruit Pests by Walter Ebeling that covers avocado pests in not only California, but what was and is known to exist in other avocado growing regions around the US and the world. It was reproduced at the Hofshi Foundation's Avocadosource website. At this point it only contains the chapters pertaining to avocado. Other chapters in the full text cover citrus, grape, walnut, almond pecan, olive, fig, date and other "Minor Subtropical Fruits". The beauty of the book is not only historical, but that it is still current (although the DDT recommendations are out of date) for many pests. It also chronicles pests that have appeared in the past, disappeared and then reappeared. An example is Avocado Bud Mite - here, gone, here and seemingly gone again, probably to reappear sometime in the future. This is no replacement for the UC-IPM website, http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/crops-agriculture.html , but it is a good look at how the pest has been managed in the past and is done so currently. http://www.avocadosource.com/papers/research_articles/ebelingwalter1959b.pdf
I thought I had the only copies of this book in Ventura County, but you could too. There are some listed on ABE Books for cheap, which is where I got our replacement. At one point the University of California made hard copies of all manner of valuable material available for cheap or free. It still does, but much is online now. Check out the selections: https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/
This pestiferous book was compiled by Walter Ebeling at UC Riverside/Los Angeles. He was of some note, considered the Father of Urban Entomology. As you can see from the descriptions of avocado pests, he was a good all round entomologist, as well. Urban entomology really forces you to know a lot because of the diversity of arthropods in urban settings. He passed in 2010 and was recognized world-wide for his work.
