A tiny insect that threatens California's $1.6-billion citrus industry has been found near one of the state's commercial citrus growing regions.
The Asian citrus psyllid, which has ravaged orchards in Florida as well as overseas, was found in Valley Center in rural San Diego County, the closest the bug has come to a major concentration of citrus groves.
Northern San Diego County has about 2,500 acres of commercial citrus trees and is home to the largest concentration of organic citrus farmers in the nation, which will complicate efforts to control the insect, said Ted Batkin, president of the Citrus Research Board.
"The Valley Center trapping is not a surprise, but it is a real concern. This is very close to several thousand acres of citrus groves," Batkin said.
The insect, which often carries a disease that kills citrus trees, was trapped Monday in a small "ranchette" that has about 40 citrus trees, the California Department of Food and Agriculture said Friday.
State officials are awaiting lab results on whether it is infected.
"This is a detection of very high concern," said Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the state agency.
Last year, the psyllid skipped over the border from Mexico and has since been trapped in residential neighborhoods in much of Southern California.
"It is getting closer. We are going to see it reach commercial groves," said Beth Grafton-Cardwell, a UC Riverside entomologist based in the San Joaquin Valley. "The psyllid is relentless."
The citrus industry and state agricultural officials are racing to limit the spread of the psyllid, which can carry citrus greening disease, also called Huanglongbing, or HLB. So far, the nearest outbreaks of citrus greening have been in Louisiana and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
The disease does not affect humans, but it does ruin the taste of citrus fruit and juice before killing the plants. There is no known cure.
Officials have trapped uninfected psyllids in Los Angeles, Orange, Imperial and San Diego counties. The bug also has been found in Arizona.
Entomologists expect the insect to make its way up to the prime citrus-growing regions of Ventura, Kern, Tulare and Fresno counties over the next year or two. They say it's only a matter of time before citrus greening disease finds its way to California from Mexico or elsewhere.
