Orange County Register 8/28/09
State declares insect quarantine for all of O.C.
August 28th, 2009, 12:49 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor
All of Orange County is now officially under quarantine for the Asian citrus psyllid, state agricultural officials said Friday, with the insect prompting worry because it carries a disease that kills citrus trees.
The quarantine means residents and business owners should not move any citrus plants, cuttings, fruits or leaves either within the county or outside it.
“There’s no problem consuming fruit from homegrown trees, as long as it’s done on site,” state agricultural spokesman Jay Van Rein said. “The risk is, if the fruit or the plants themselves are moved, the insects are so small and hard to detect with the naked eye, they’re very easily moved.”
Nursery owners must ensure their plants are free of the pest.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture signaled earlier in the week that Orange County would be placed under quarantine, and asked residents to act as if the quarantine was already in place.
Samples are still being gathered where five of the insects were found, on a block near Edinger Avenue and south Main Street in Santa Ana (see map of affected area).
The five insects did not test positive for the disease that kills citrus trees, known as huanglongbing or citrus greening disease; more batches of insects are being collected from traps in the area.
Van Rein said state officials worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to set the quarantine at Orange County’s boundaries. Normally the quarantines extend 20 miles out from such a find, he said; the county’s boundary seemed a convenient marker for this quarantine.
Other, similar quarantines have been imposed in San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties.
The insect can carry a type of bacteria that it delivers into citrus leaves through its mouth parts. And the disease caused by the bacteria is incurable. Once citrus plants acquire it, they will waste away and die.
Brazil and Florida have been hard hit by the pest. It has also been found in several other southeastern U.S. states, some finding only the insect and some finding both the insect and the disease.
(Photo of psyllid courtesy CDFA; photo of psyllid’s effects on mandarin oranges and on leaves courtesy USDA.)