Residents and business owners should consider all of Orange County to be under quarantine for the Asian citrus psyllid, a pest that carries an uncurable citrus disease and was recently detected in Santa Ana.

“We don’t want to see people moving potted citrus plants, all varieties,” said A.G. Kawamura, a former Orange County strawberry farmer who is now the secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “They can do it through the nursery system.”

The agency on Tuesday announced that five of the insects were found in Santa Ana monitoring traps. But agricultural officials on Wednesday were still seeking legal approvals for the quarantine, which will cover the entire county (see map of affected area).

Until then, Kawamura said, residents should act as if it is already in place. Citrus trees such as lemon, tangerine and orange, and especially their leaves, should not be moved.

“For anybody in the citrus business, if you’re moving young trees for transplanting, that has to be treated — made sure that it’s free of the pest,” Kawamura said.

In Orange County, where there is little remaining agricultural production of citrus, a warning to homeowners might be even more important, he said.

“A lot of people have some kind of citrus tree in their yards in Orange County, a huge amount,” he said.

Although the psyllid attacks the leaves of citrus trees and their relatives, the insects normally don’t directly kill the tree. Instead, their piercing mouthparts deliver bacteria that the insects can carry.

The bacteria causes huanglongbing, or citrus greening disease, which cannot be cured.

“Once the tree’s infected, the tree will eventually shut down and die,” Kawamura said.

The disease was recently found in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, he said. It has devastated citrus trees in Brazil and  Florida.

“We see basically the potential for the demise of the Florida citrus industry,” he said.

Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have both the insect and the disease, while Texas, Mississippi and Alabama so far have only the insect, said state agriculture spokesman Steve Lyle.

The disease itself has not yet been found in psyllids trapped in California, or on trees, although it did turn up in an psyllid found in a FedEx package in Fresno. The insects found in Orange County tested negative for the disease. A new find of the insect was reported Wednesday in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.

Orange County’s quarantine will join those that already exist for the psyllid in parts of San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties.

Invasive pests and animals are a growing problem, Kawamura said, much of it caused by people who order non-certified plants online, or bring back favorite plants, seeds or root stock from other countries.

“Our whole world, our country, our state has to become more alert to what we do with the movement of plant diseases and plant pests,” he said.

(Images of A.G. Kawamura, the Asian citrus psyllid and its effects courtesy California Department of Food and Agriculture and U.S. Department of Agriculture.)

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