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Santa Ana area quarantined for citrus-attacking insect
August 25th, 2009, 9:24 am · 19 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor
An insect pest that carries an incurable citrus disease has been found in Santa Ana, prompting state agricultural officials to impose a quarantine on the area. 
Five of the insects, called the Asian citrus psyllid, were caught in monitoring traps, the agency said; the quarantine means the California Department of Food and Agriculture will restrict the movement of nursery plants within five miles of the area.
The psyllid can carry huanglongbing, which causes citrus trees and their relatives to decline in health and eventually die.
The pest was first found in Florida in 1998 and the disease in 2005, and the insects are now present in several southeastern U. S. states. This is the first detection in California north of San Diego and Imperial counties.
(Photo courtesy California Department of Food and Agriculture.)
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Gangs and citrus bugs. Great city!
Do you sit there all day waiting to post smug comments? I really hope not. Go outside and see the world.
vivpio,
You are right. Too may people on this site need to get a life!
including yourself!
Hear ya! I wish the OC Reg would filter stupid comments.
Commenters: please remember we don’t allow racism or personal attacks, including personal attacks on other commenters.
I am retired. However, all but the first poster seem to have a problem with others, other then themselves, posting. Do you people not have a life.
yikes! That is a scary bug.
“huanglongbing”? - Sounds painful. Does it cause a rash or skin irritations as well? Any burning sensations?
Can you give a little more detail as to why they have bug traps and what bugs they are trying to find and why they are trying to find them? It doesn’t seem like Santa Ana is a huge agricultural area. I could understand if they were trapping bugs in the Coachella Valley or places like Delano or Modesto or Santa Maria, but why Santa Ana?
Please add some details.
This bug in particular attacks citrus trees - lem, lime, orange, grapefruit, mandarins, kumquats, murraya (curry leaf), najaro jazmin, etc…any and all. Orange Jasmine (mock orange) is one of its favorites. Check yards in most So Cal homes, and you’re likely to find a citrus variety. The bug is hard bodied, and a strong flier. It’s the size of an aphid, and reproduces like aphid, meaning it doesn’t have to breed to have babies. The populations escalate exponentially. It has mouthparts like a syringe. It pierces the plant and drinks the juice like a mosquito. Like a mosquito that spreads malaria, if it bites a diseased tree, everything it feeds on after that, it will spread the disease to. The death in baby trees takes months, in mature trees, years. It is very hard to see if the tree is diseased - the symptoms look like nutrition deficiency. Trees can have the disease and not show symptoms. This is why the industry is freaking out. Besides the fact that most citrus taste great and are a healthy food source, the citrus industry is a multi billion dollar business for the US providing thousands of jobs. That’s why the state is putting traps out. Hopefully people will look and call their counties if they see this pest. It’s devastating if you love oranges, lemons, mandarins, etc. like I do.
I live in an unincorporated area & they hang stuff on this or that tree sometimes, but never follow up on it. Why bother if you’re not going to follow up? Someone even hung a type of glass bottle jar, but never came back to check it.
Only in Santa Ana. The next thing we will hear is a UFO sighting from there. lol
Will they expand the testing into other areas? Can those of us with citrus plants volunteer to be tested or monitoring stations set up?
Great.. Now I have to worry about My trees..
they need to do a better Job Control what Plants come in and out of
the Country…
We received a mailer regarding these bugs, and called several times for someone to come check our tree. No one EVER called us back. Must not be that important to save the trees.
I’m really glad to see such a lively discussion on this but please remember, no personal attacks on other commenters.
I got all excited about this one. At first I thought it was a story about the vermin who work for and run the city.
lol. sad but true.