The Tropical Fruit Forum
Citrus => Citrus General Discussion => Topic started by: Millet on August 02, 2017, 09:58:46 PM
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Florida growers who have a citrus tree in their yard, can get a vial of Tamarixia wasps to release in your tree.
Tamarixia are great killers of citrus psyllid that spreads Greening disease.
http://www.gainesville.com/news/20170801/get-your-wasps-and-join-fight-against-citrus-greening (http://www.gainesville.com/news/20170801/get-your-wasps-and-join-fight-against-citrus-greening)
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Nice! I wonder if they've diversified the gene pool of the wasps since they introduced it years ago to fight ACP.
What the UCR people said the FL earlier release was missing was
1. wasps taken from a small geographical area. UCR took samples from a wider range.
2. UCR discovered there were even smaller parasites feeding on the parasitic wasps and cleaned them up before introducing them to California.
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The article mentions that 100% of mature citrus trees in FL are infected; that is scary and so tragic.
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The article mentions that 100% of mature citrus trees in FL are infected; that is scary and so tragic.
Devastating for sure, but there is a glimmer of hope for future citrus. I don't know how you balance risk to current crops and a search for resistant trees, but I hope someone is working on it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/7808445/New-British-tree-resistant-to-Dutch-Elm-Disease.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/7808445/New-British-tree-resistant-to-Dutch-Elm-Disease.html)
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Gonna have to be a GMO, which would be great.
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I think the comment about 100% infection in Florida refers to commercial citrus in the southern part of the state. There is more hope on the panhandle and the tamarixia can help. Please see this recent article from the University of Florida:
A Tiny Wasp to Fight the Asian Citrus Psyllid (http://nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu/phag/2017/07/14/a-tiny-wasp-to-fight-the-asian-citrus-psyllid/)
Best regards,
Dan Willey
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Thanks for the post.
I just ordered some for my trees.
No sign of greening (that I recognize) yet and hope to keep it that way!
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A.T. Hagan, great to see you here. I remember you from the old Citrus Forum. I have thought about you from time to time, wondering where you went. I have not seen you in along time. Excited to see you again.
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Signed up and waiting for them to select my area.
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A.T. Hagan, great to see you here. I remember you from the old Citrus Forum. I have thought about you from time to time, wondering where you went. I have not seen you in along time. Excited to see you again.
Hi Millet! Good to see you again as well.
I was trying to find the old citrus forum again when I came across this place and saw you were the moderator so figured the board must have moved over here.
Is the old board archived anywhere? There was an awful lot of knowledge contained there. Would be a pity to have lost it.
Is Dr. Manners still around? How about Stan McKenzie?
I was thinking of you when I realized over the weekend that I needed to order more calcium nitrate. Have a wheelbarrow load of coconut husk chips to process and no calcium nitrate to do the cation exchange with. I'll have more by this weekend.
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Dr. Manners and Stan McKenzie are still around, but have not posted in a very long time. The old forum is completely gone even the archives. Nothing left at all.
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Thanks for this information, I also applied. I recently planted my first citrus trees on the land. I chose the following:
Key lime, persian lime, Meyer lemon, sour orange, calamondin and orangequat. I do recognize that parasitoids in the adult stages feed on pollen especially from small flowered perennial species. For that reason I surrounded each of my new trees with four plants of African Blue basil. It is a very easy to grow plant which is a perennial type of basil, does not make seed and must be propagated from cuttings which root very easily, flower profusely, are very attractive to honeybees and are a good edible herb.
here is a video showing the plant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sGN-OQTxBE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sGN-OQTxBE)
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The old forum is completely gone even the archives. Nothing left at all.
No, it is not true. There are several backup. We are waiting for Laaz to give us the permission to publish them.
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Sylvain, if there are backups how do we link up with them?
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Please do let us know how to find the backups! There was a lot of knowledge built up there.
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They are not on the web.
I shall publish mine as soon Laaz permits.
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Just got word I am to receive my wasps on the 17th of this month. I am very curious to see them!
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Received mine this past Wednesday. Didn't expect them to be so tiny. They were eager
to get out once I placed the tube in the tree and unscrewed the cap.
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Michael, did the tube say how many wasps were in the tube?
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Picked up my wasps yesterday and have released them. A little concerned that given the time of year my trees don't have enough new leaves, but it is what it is.
Those things are tiny. Maybe a millimeter or thereabouts? There are numbers written on the cap, but I don't know if they indicate a wasp count or not. I guesstimate maybe fifty in the tube? Too small and moving around too much to do any better than that.
Once they gave me the arrival date I carefully searched my trees looking for psyllids and did not see any that I recognized as such. If I don't have any then the wasps will simply disappear for lack of hosts. If they are in the neighborhood them hopefully they will serve as a check on their growth.
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Tamarixia is also able, although to a lesser degree to affect Bactericera cockerelli , potato psyllid common on the West coast .
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Michael, did the tube say how many wasps were in the tube?
Sorry for the delayed response Millet. There were 50 in the tube.