I was horrified to see psyllids on my Oro Blanco yesterday (had been pretty diligent about using soap in the fall, but had stopped as weather cooled down a little). On reading about how to treat (both to try to keep my trees healthy and to do my part to try to limit greening disease) I’ve been reading the university of California insecticidal control guidelines. I would really prefer to limit the amount of pesticides used but the soap method doesn’t seem to be effective enough:frowning:.
To those who have used a soil drench (bayer advanced is listed), are the instructions on the bottle pretty self explanatory? It said on the UCsite to treat in fall and spring, do I wait til spring because the roots are more active then? Or treat now since I actually saw the buggers? Any other recommendations for treating given that I would love to limit pesticides to the minimum necessary amount? Thank you for any suggestions!
When you see them it is time to spray with a foliar at the thrip dosage. Make sure thrips are listed on the label before purchasing.
Thank you. So I could spray now with spinosid (supposed to control thrips), and then would you still drench in spring? Would I have to wait to see them again?
Of those listed on the UCDA site I personally would go with tempo , and or oil spray
Tempo is a synthetic pyrethroid ,so other pryrethrins may also be effective .
Merit ,and Bayer advanced are; imidacloprid, a systemic, neonicicotinoides,
Wich I personally would avoid
Yes, about every 10 days until you stop seeing them for a week.
The drench is a systemic and thus it is used periodically whether you see them or not.
@Hillbillyhort – The Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) is a tiny beast. It is capable of being a vector for Citrus Greening Disease, a very deadly malady for citrus. Further, the main host plant for ACP is Curry Leaf (not citrus) and thus killing it on contact is very important.
In environments where Citrus is grown, Cyfluthrin (active ingredient in Tempo) will last up to 3 days in the control of this specific psyllid, but typically 36 hours. One spray is not going to do it. Further, in Citrus growing environments there is another annoying (but not deadly) pest – Citrus Leaf Miner. Cyfluthrin will not control it.
Unfortunately ineffective with ACP.
ACP is a vigorous beast. Only those labeled for thrips will work, and only at the “thrip dosage” on the label. In fact, double it.
Note that:
(1) Commercial Citrus growers of nursery stock are required by APHIS to be treated both by foliar insecticide and systemic neonicotinoides every 90 days by a certified pesticide applicator.
(2) Commercial Citrus growers of fruit are required to either (1) organic have their picked fruit gassed with pesticide before going to market, or (2) follow the same regimen for growers of nursery stock.
My control measures here ,( wich are 100% effective so far !)
Is a good strong dose of single digit temperatures.
I went out and looked this morning ,5 deg. , and not one ACP.
Not sure if it was the way my citrangequats were shaking (shivering)
That keep them from landing, or the snow flakes hitting them in the back of their heads ? But I did not see even one !
So , Lids , this is one low pesticide approach that seems to be working so far.
That said , obviously I am outside the citrus belt, and Richard ,and others may have better wisdom in dealing with ACP.
However I have been studying this matter. What I have learned so far is:
In January ,now , use a contact , quick nock down insecticide ,pyrethroid ,or other , repeate in 30 days, to break life cycle.use different MOA to prevent resistance .this can significantly lower numbers for months to come.
Ideally this would be a coordinated community effort .as its not the ACPs on your plant that you should be worried about ,per say ,it’s the ones coming from your niebors plants that may be carrying greening disease that are the threat.
As we are all " the neighbor" it really needs to be community effort.
Is this possible ,?
The systemic neonicicotinoides , such as imidacloprid , i.e. Merit, others
Are slower acting ,but longer lasting,need to be applied just befor active growth,for absorption , ( may. -June in your area ?)
While these compounds may provide the best control of ACP, they are suspected to contribute to colony collapse syndrome of honey bees,
And decline of other beneficial pollinators
As a bee keeper I do not use these products.!
Also they are systemic i.e. Inside the plant, you can not wash them off,anything that kills a bug that drinks the sap of a treated plant,I personally would not use in my garden , orchard etc.any would not advocate its use.
Richard , I can see the justification of using this in a nursery setting so as to be able to produce , and distribute clean disease free nursery stock
Good luck out there
Hillbillyhort
I don’t blame you but in places like CA that’s the best hope of delaying the spread of citrus greening. I think most of the citrus you buy in the store has been treated. I won’t use it for other fruits that actually need pollination by bees. Citrus doesn’t need pollination. I’m not sure how much bees visit citrus flowers.
That’s an over-generalization. The only link was to coated corn seed in pre-plant conditions – resulting in gross over dosing on large farms. It’s now prohibited. Neonicotinoid use in fruit orchards has no tie to colony collapse. Rather, the largest factor has been poor care of bee boxes. Further, “colony collapse” refers to commercially kept bees – not wild populations. The latter are thriving.
Quite a bit here.
100% of it from ACP affected areas.