Sustainable Management of Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and Citrus Production

Sustainable Management of Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and Citrus Production

Report Date: 10/15/2019
Project: 18-052C   Year: 2019
Category: ACP Vector
Author: Jawwad Qureshi
Sponsor: Citrus Research and Development Foundation

This main objective of this project is to manage ACP using various combinations of conventional and organic insecticides and biological control agents. Four Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs were established. These included 1) conventional and organic insecticides plus biological control 2) organic insecticides and Horticultural Mineral Oil (HMO) plus biological control, 3) conventional insecticides plus biological control, and 4) HMO plus biological control. Program 5 relied only on biological control. Between July-September, there were six sampling events in which 2,160 tap samples were conducted to detect ACP and predators and 2,267 shoots examined for infestation with ACP immatures. ACP populations were very low across all programs averaging below treatment threshold of 0.1 adults per tap sample. Shoot infestation rate averaged 7%. No spray applications were made in any program. Psyllid adults averaged 0.05 per tap sample in the program 5 compared to 0.01 adults per tap sample across programs 1-4, showing a significant reduction of 80, which persisted from previous applications as no new sprays were conducted due to low populations. Shoot infestation averaged 18% in program 5, and 2-10% across programs 1-4. Lacewings, spiders, and ants averaged 0.05, 0.006, and 0.32, respectively, in program 5, and 0.05, 0.002, and 0.19, respectively, across programs 1-4. A total of 12,000 Tamarixia radiata were released across all programs. Nymphs were not available to evaluate parasitism.


Your browser does not support pdfs, click here to download the file.