ACP Training - English and Spanish

Save the Date: Training Opportunity for

Field Crews

The Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program is hosting free training workshops for field crew supervisors and farm labor contractors in Riverside and Ventura counties this month. The two-hour training workshops will be presented primarily in Spanish and will review best practices for field crews on how they can properly prevent the spread of Asian citrus psyllids (ACP) through hands-on training. English-language workshops can be available following each Spanish workshop; however, the English-language workshops are subject to cancellation depending on the number of sign-ups.

For more information and to RSVP, please visit our Training Workshop webpage. Please select the preferred language and meeting location for each attendee in the details below.

The Train-the-Trainer workshops will take place on the following dates:

Riverside County
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 at Citrus State Historic Park, Riverside County

• Spanish-language workshop: 9 a.m.
• English-language workshop: 11 a.m. (Subject to change)

Ventura County
Thursday, August 29, 2024 at Limoneira, Ventura County

• Spanish-language workshop: 9 a.m.
• English-language workshop: 11 a.m. (Subject to change)

The training workshops will also fulfill the requirement listed in CDFA's harvesters/farm labor contractors' compliance agreement for these industry members to stay abreast of ACP and Huanglongbing (HLB) prevention best practices.

RSVPs are strongly encouraged. Location details, workshop start times and additional information will be sent upon RSVP. Please RSVP using the following link below.

RSVP here

Front-line leaders in the field will learn firsthand about what they can do to reduce the risk of spreading ACP, and ultimately how to protect local groves from HLB.

During the workshop, participants will:

• Learn best practices for field crews to prevent ACP from spreading in between neighboring groves.
• Practice using effective communication techniques to help their crews and others understand these best practices and why they are important.
• Understand the threat of HLB to the livelihood of the California citrus industry.

We all must do our part if we're going to protect California citrus from this pest and disease – and field crews are the first line of defense in this effort. Packinghouses are encouraged to send their staff and crews to this valuable workshop as a way to provide an extra layer of protection in preventing the spread of ACP in their groves.

For questions, please email Makayla Thompson at mt@nstpr.com.

 

RSVP here

 

ACP adult and nymph

Upcoming Citrus Meetings

Attached Files CRS Annoucement October 2 2024
Local Citrus Round Table Agenda AAIE
Workshop on the Biology and Identification of Phytoseiid Predatory Mites in Agriculture
Citricola Scale Field Day Announcement - September 24 2024
Fall Citrus Meeting at Lindcove

Photo: Wax Scale, Ceroplastes ceriferus

scale Ceroplastes

Ants and Mealybugs?

Managing citrus mealybug – does ant control help?

Sandipa Gautam, Sanjeev Dhungana, and David Haviland

UC Co-operative Extension

Starting 2019/20 season, pest control advisors started noticing citrus mealybug infestations in multiple citrus varieties that continued to increase in acreage in the San Joaquin Valley. Although present in the citrus systems, mealybugs were considered to be a minor pest and kept well under check by natural enemies until recently.

What are mealybugs?

Mealybugs are soft, oval, flat, distinctly segmented insects whose body is covered in white mealy wax. Citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri is the most common species associated with citrus. Females lay ~600 eggs in egg sacs loosely held by white cottony flint. Crawlers are yellowish, and can move or be carried by ants, birds, or the wind to start new infestations. Crawlers feed by sucking sap using straw-like stylets and soon develop a waxy covering (Fig. 1C). Like California red scale, females molt and stay as third instars until mated by a male. Males go through a pupal stage and emerge as adults with wings that fly to seek a mate.

Mealybugs prefer the inside canopy of the tree and can be found under dense leaves, between clusters of fruits, or in other cryptic places where they can be difficult to find, especially when the population is low. As the season progresses and the tree flushes, blooms, and fruit develops, mealybugs move to the parts of the tree where nutrients flow. Ongoing research on seasonal phenology suggest that there are 5-6 generations in the San Joaquin Valley. The first generation starts from overwintering adult/egg populations in late March/early April. The second-generation crawlers/nymphs move to fruit in June/July. The remaining generations each year primarily feed and multiply on the fruit.

Mealybugs produce nutrient rich honeydew that is an attractive food source for ants. Ants have been reported to defend insect colonies from predators and parasitoids. In an early infestation, ant trails can be used as an indicator to locate mealybug infestations or other sap sucking pests. Managing sugar feeding ants in citrus orchards has shown increased biocontrol of sap sucking insects. It is plausible that loss of chlorpyrifos as an ant control tool may have aggravated ants thereby aiding to increase mealybug pressure in recent years.

As mealybugs have become a reoccurring pest in citrus orchards, University of California researchers-initiated studies to work towards developing strategies to manage this pest. Research funded by Citrus Research Board and led by Gautam lab is investigating biology, field ecology, and management of mealybugs. During field visits, our observations have shown that various ant species of were present throughout the growing season attending mealybug colonies.

Does managing ant help suppress mealybug?

UC researchers have documented that managing sugar feeding ants increases biocontrol, thereby reducing the pest pressure of sap sucking insects. When ant densities are were reduced >90%, there was ~90% less mealybug on twigs and complete elimination of mealybug was reported from fruit. However, managing ants has been a challenge since the use of chlorpyrifos was banned. To address this need, UC researchers have worked to develop and test different types of hydrogel beads for delivering insecticide products to sugar-feeding species of ants.

Research led by David Haviland has focused on the experimental use of commercially-available polyacrylamide hydrogel beads for large field-scale applications. In 2023 a large-scale field trial was conducted in a 20-acre grapefruit block in Sanger, California. Two applications of hydrogel beads laced with insecticides were made on Aug 2 and August 30, 2023. Post-treatment evaluations for ant density were done on 24 trees/plot by counting the number of ants that passed through a graft union for 15 secs weekly for 4 weeks after each application. The effects of ant suppression on mealybug densities was evaluated in October 2023 by counting the number of fruits infested with mealybugs (presence/absence) on 30 fruits from the inside canopy. Insecticide treatments had variable results on ant density, with lowest ant density consistently found in plots treated with thiamethoxam. Similarly, plots treated with thiamethoxam had the lowest populations of mealybugs.

There's a lot more to this story:

https://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Com_Ag/Subtropical/?newsletteritem=100493

 

 

 

 

mealybug stages

Hydrogels and Argentine Ants

Update on Novel Ant Control Method in Citrus (MyAgLife in Citrus, Episode 828)
 

Recently, the Citrus Research Boards, IPM Entomologist, Ivan Milosavljevi?, Ph.D., was a guest on Episode 828 of MyAgLife in Citrus, where he provided an update on on a novel method of ant control in citrus. This method utilizes hydrogel beads filled with trace pesticide amounts.

To listen to the episode, please click below. 

Episode 828 | April 30, 2024 | MyAgLife in Citrus – MyAgLife Daily News Report

argentine ant and hydrogels

What's Happening with Florida Citrus??

 Click here to view the May 2024 digital edition.

 

Read more