Dinuba Asian citrus psyllids the most ever found in the Valley

UC Cooperative Extension's Beth Grafton-Cardwell is one of the state's leading experts on Asian citrus psyllid.

More than 100 Asian citrus psyllids were found on three backyard orange trees east of Dinuba, reported Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee. The homeowner told officials the trees were planted in April 2012 and were acquired from a private party, not a nursery.

"It was incredible," said Fresno County entomologist Gene Hannon. "There were easily a dozen on just one small leaf."

Previous finds in the Valley numbered from one to three on yellow sticky traps in the Tulare County communities of Lindsay, Strathmore and Terra Bella.

Beth Grafton-Cardwell, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, said the number of psyllids in Dinuba means there is a reproducing population.

"And when that happens, we are off and running to getting an established population in the San Joaquin Valley," she said.

Grafton-Cardwell has worked with a team of UC researchers to provide detailed and scientifically sound guidelines for treating farm- and home-grown citrus infested with Asian citrus psyllid on a new UC Cooperative Extension website, http://ucanr.edu/sites/acp.

The website advises farmers and homeowners to regularly conduct visual surveys for Asian citrus psyllid and tap sample (see video) trees in their orchards.