The first release this week in Riverside of Tamarixia radiata, a tiny wasp from the Punjab that is a natural enemy of Asian citrus psyllid, was picked by several news outlets, including the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the Porterville Recorder and the Desert Sun.

“It’s great to release these guys at long last,” the Enterprise quoted Mark Hoddle, a biological control specialist in UCR’s entomology department who for the past two years has been collecting the wasps in Pakistan.

The Recorder included a quote from Ted Batkin, president of the Citrus Research Board, a grower organization that helped fund Hoddle's research.

“This is the very first step of multiple steps in research to see if this particular strain of Tamarixia will adapt to California,” Batkin said. He said the wasp is just one of 10 or 12 tactics being studied to combat the psyllid.

The Desert Sun article had words from Aviva Goldman, a UC Riverside graduate student who works with Hoddle.

“The Asian citrus psyllid is the most potentially damaging invasive pest in California right now,” Goldman said. “These wasps are a way to treat the infestation without having to go to every person's backyard and spray pesticides on each tree."

More information about the release of Tamarixia radiata in Riverside can be found in the ANR news release.